Log #177 - Mount, Attack, Release, Unrest and Free

The Unthanks Mount The Air

Black Keys Attack & Release

Free The Free Story
Erlend Oye Unrest

Iron And Wine The Creek Drank the Cradle
Lal and Mike Waterson Bright Phoebus

Erlend Oye is one half of Kings Of Convenience, and also the main leader in The Whitest Boy Alive. He has released two solo albums, Unrest being the debut from 2003.

Unrest sounds relatively modern with its electro-disco house beats and nods to Daft Punk and Kraftwerk. Ultimately it's a little easy listening and didn't really grab me by the scruff of the neck, albeit served as pleasant background. It did encourage me to play some Kings Of Convenience (a bit better) and some Whitest Boy Alive (much better) albums again though. Oye has a very gentle voice that seems to suit the acoustic whimsy of Kings and sharp pop of Whitest Boy best.

I'm sort of surprised I still like The Black Keys. I thought their brand of, by definition quite limited, guitar blues rock would be quickly commercialised and wear thin quite quickly but each new record I hear maintains a significant amount of grit, surprise and originality, which lifts them well clear of simply being White Stripe copyists.

I must admit I am non too familiar with the entire The Black Keys catalogue so it is difficult as yet to form much of an opinion on where the band have been and where they are going - I still fear they will, or maybe they have done already, venture off down the Kings Of Leon road towards mediocrity, but so far, 5 albums in, this hasn't happened.

Attack and Release features guest appearances from Tom Waits guitarist Marc Ribot and Danger Mouse (who also produced).