LiveBetweenTheLines

We are currently moving from a crap webhost to a non-crap webhost (we hope), so sorry if some of the pages on the site are wonky for a bit as we get re-adjusted. The MB will be moving and may be down for a wee bit as well. We’ve also managed to get a hold of our old domain name. Remember when we were .net? Well we are again! We are .net AND .com. Go us. Both suffixes will take you to the same site, which we rather like.

So… we’ve a bit of South news to catch up on. Sorry about that. Lots of old items to put up, but hey, they may still be a good read and worthwhile to have logged on the site.

First of all, the most recent bit of South-affiliated news comes from… McDonald’s? Check out Will Harper’s crazy antics in a new UK Miccy D advert.

411mania.com reviewed You Are Here, giving the album a rather glowing 8.5 rating:

The background

South have been lingering around the UK music scene for a number of years, having been spotted way back in the late nineties. You may recognize their music from other facets. Their song “Paint the Silence” appeared on The O.C, and several more South tunes can be heard popping up in various Television and Cinema pieces.

For a band once tipped to be the hottest act at the turn of the millennium, South’s career has stuttered through various releases. The bands undeniable versatility has arguably helped and hindered their career thus far - they are known for spanning the genres and flirting mercilessly with many styles and influences. Previous EP’s and albums have focused around elements of Pop, Electro and Indie, which makes it incredibly hard to pinpoint South on the musical map. Whether this is a positive or a negative is down to your own perception.

South’s fifth full-length album You Are Here is the first to be produced internally, as Brett Shaw took over all duties from Dave Eringa. Can this be the record that breaks America? Or will it be the next in a line of frustrating albums for the London-based band?

The music

You Are Here begins in melodramatic fashion with the gripping Rock ballad “Wasted” - a song which flows from sweet to sour with ease and precision. Its hook is the tense verse section which flows into a surprisingly cheery chorus, creating a good opener. The second track “Opened Up” takes advantage of some tactile acoustic rhythms whilst supplementing them with an electronic edge. What this creates is a ballad similar in style to the opener, succeeding in its ability to take the listener through several ups and downs.

“Better Things” is the records first example of South’s Pop-Indie side, a pleasant ditty that is certainly Single worthy. “The Pain” demonstrates yet another shift in styles as the band explores their reggae influences. “Tell Me” gives You are Here an upwards shift in momentum combining Pop and Electro to create a funky danceable number, whilst sneaking in a cheeky nod to Bowie’s hit ‘Changes’ (You gotta love a Bowie reference). “She’s Half Crazy” is an artful exploration into the funkier side of South. If you can imagine Bootsy Collins, Ian Brown and Keith Richards locked in a room somewhere with a few instruments and a large amount of illegal ‘apparatus’ then this song may well occur (after the inevitable fight of course).

Songs like “Lonely Highs” and “Soul Receivers” can shock and delight with their surprising combination of hard rock with softer, Flamenco-style moments. “Every Light Has Blown” is for me, the albums only real blemish - taking a Snow Patrol approach to proceedings. Some may love it, but I find that style of song tedious and whiny. The album closes with “Zither song” which despite featuring a large gap in the middle, takes the listener through the motions moving in between styles in a way which sums up the record perfectly. Considering this is Brett Shaw’s first piece of solo production you have to give him props for an excellently controlled album, which somehow rolls South’s diverse styles together to create a unique and impressive record.

The indierockupstart blog reviewed the album, also giving it an 8.5 and had this to say:

South’s previous three albums have have followed the holy trident of european brit-pop with 2001’s From Here On In sounding like The Stone Roses, 2003’s With the Tides sounding like The Charlatans UK, and 2006’s Adventures in the Underground, Journey to the Stars sounding like New Order. You Are Here, South’s latest release, is the first album that you can’t truly make any comparisons too. Combining elements of all three of their previous albums, it is the first record where you have to say they sound like nobody, but themseleves. This is never more so evident than on the album’s opening track, “Wasted.” A song about a couple lamenting about how they tired of getting wasted, the lyrics unfold over a gorgeous layer of sounds– strings-check, delayed notes - check, gorgeous strumming - check, siren droning in the background - check — its an album highlight. Wasted combines all of the elements fans have come to love about South. The rest of the album follows much of their previous career trajectory, but finds them experimenting with Oasis like perussions and is an album highlight. The album, however, not without its missteps, “She’s Half Crazy” is a hot mess with South bringing a little funk to the proceedings. The song sounds like Ian Brown and Bootsy Collins had an ugly child. Balloons ends far too soon being only 30 seconds long, but those 30 seconds are pure heaven. I wish South had developed it into a full song.

Album closer Zither Song is the highlight of the album and is one of the best songs South has ever written. Over a gentle strum featuring some beautiful zither instrumentation, lead singer, Joel Cadbury laments the process of time. The track finds South operating in space with the drums and crescendo not kicking in until the 2:56 mark. The buildup is worth the wait as it features a kick-ass drumbeat and swirling guitars. At its most, You Are Here is what you expect from South, an experimental consistent affair that features great choruses and epic like instrumentation.

I found the Post Script to this entry rather endearing:

POST SCRIPT. I picked South’s Adventures in the Undergound, Journey to the Stars as the best album in 2006. In making that selection I commented about 2006 not being a great year in music and for me, and picked the South album as the best almost apologetically. Listening to that album again in its entirety, I realize my mistake. That album is a murderer’s row of tunes and rightfully deserves its place as the best album of 2006. I should probably re-write that list at my old blog.

Glasswerk National unfortunately was not as impressed with You Are Here:

onsidering that ‘You Are Here’ is South’s fifth album, I am slightly disappointed by the output. The band show in places that they have all the raw materials to produce a great album, but this effort suggests that the London trio are less than the sum of their parts.

The majority of the album is made up of ambient alt-rock which makes it easy to see how the band was signed earlier in their career by UNKLE maestro James Lavelle. Opening track ‘Waster’ is the best example of this style, and sets a high standard which South fail to consistently reproduce over the course of the album. Musically there are similarities to Death Cab for Cutie, but Joel Cadbury’s vocal rarely reaches the heights of this opening track, sometimes becoming so inaudible that it’s almost unnecessary.

South are at their best when producing atmospheric psychadelia such as ‘There Goes Your Life’, which sounds like Jupiter-era Cave In covering Pink Floyd’s early material and throwing in Beach Boys melodies. Similarly, the grandiose ‘Zither Song’ shows a depth in musical ability and a grand scope which highlights the band’s determination not to be easily pigeonholed.

Unfortunately, South appear to suffer from a tendency to branch out into genres they are unable to fully grasp. ‘She’s Half Crazy’ is a brave attempt to introduce a funkier edge to the album, but it doesn’t work in combination with Cadbury’s Curtis-meets-Gibbard vocal, with the singer seeming more uncomfortable with every passing note.

The music exploration on ‘You Are Here’ does not always fail, with the more textbook indie-rock of ‘Lonely Highs’ and the Strokes-esque ‘Sound Receivers’ putting the band’s talents to best use. Still, South need to play to their strengths, and I’m not sure they are fully aware of what this entails. Sadly, considering that this is the band’s fifth album, I’m unsure whether they ever will.