There’s just a few days to go now before Big Ben strikes midnight to start a New Year, so I’ve gathered up the last of the albums received over the last month for a single, mass review. 

The World Is Yours - Various Artists (Freeworld)

I just love it when record labels produce compilations of their artist roster, with great songs taken from each of the albums released during the year. Fiecely independent North London record label Floating World Records, under its emprint Freeworld, has done just that to celebrate its first year. There’s 18 tracks here representing an eclectic rage of music from punk to roots to folk, and including a song from one of our top albums of the year, Eileen Rose And The Holy Wreck’s LUNA TURISTA (also in my list of top albums of the decade). Also included are wonderful songs from Andy White, Cracker, Bloodkin, Sharon Robinson, Gary U.S. Bonds, Toni Childs, Clem Snide, Ravi Coltrane, Robin Trower, Young Dubliners and Eef Barzeley.

4/5

Hennessy Keane NOWHERE FAST (Hennessy Keane).

Introducing Hennessy Keane… Comprising of core duo Shaun Hennessy (guitars, banjo, backing vocals) and Ian Keane (lead vocals, drums), who are augmented on their debut album ‘Nowhere Fast’ by Carl Storey (guitars, backing vocals), Spencer Brown (bass) and producer Nick Beere, who guests on Hammond organ. The Hennessy Keane writing partnership draw their inspiration across a range of influences, including their Irish and Irish-American ancestry, and NOWHERE FAST delivers a melting pot of folk and classic country song craft, which far belies their Southern English base. Rather than LA, Nashville or Austin, the irresistible harmonies and telecaster twang of Hennessy Keane first came to fruition in a small town in southern England, before being committed to tape in a rural Wiltshire studio, with most tracks, excluding the vocals, being laid down live, as the band gelled together from the outset. The boys are on the trail for a second album, which the band are scheduled to record in the first half of next year.

3.5/5

The Len Price 3 PICTURES (Wicked Cool). Release date: 18 January 2009.

Biography

The Len Price 3 are a garage pop band hailing from the Medway Towns. Their sound is forged in the Medway tradition, fusing driving energy, catchy hooks and a raw electric sound. On disc and at live shows The Len Price 3 offer a truly memorable and invigorating sonic experience. Their first album, Chinese Burn, originally released by Laughing Outlaw and recently re-released on Little Steven’s Wicked Cool label, offers something for everyone from the Devils of Chatham Town to childhood memories of fat wrestlers on Saturday afternoon TV. Their second album, Rentacrowd has just been released in the USA to rave reviews from the likes of Rolling Stone’s David Fricke and MTV’s Kurt Loder. Life is short and people are busy, so the Len Price 3 hit the audience hard and fast, before their minds start to wander to who they’re going to vote for in the next Big Brother eviction or what they’re having for tea.

Skip to track 3, ‘I Don’t Believe You’ and early Who influence is loud and clear. The problem with this album is it’s rather like stepping back to the 60’s with little or no modern creative reference point. It’s a vibrant record with a distinctive live sound, and I suspect that this band is better heard in the flesh than on record. ‘After You’re Gone’ and ‘Mr Grey’ are like early Beatles, and these old references keep cropping up. This is not a bead record, but it isn’t great either…

3/5