Customer Reviews

Cuts Across the Land

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Duke Spirit is supposed to be the "latest greatest" emerging British band. Their songs are lively and highly energetic, the band is fun to watch (on YouTube, anyway). The down side is, I find I can't listen to the whole album without getting antsy. They're certainly likable, with a sound derived (to my ears) from Siouxsie and the Banshees. But all the same, the tracks fly by and are mostly indistinguishable from one another. A cut or two from Duke Spirit is a great way to spend a few minutes, but after that I start flipping through CDs looking for something else. "Love Is an Unfamiliar Name" is my favorite track, but if you don't like that one, well there are 14 more that sound just like it--take your pick. All in all, Cuts Across the Land has its charms, just not five stars worth of them.

I heard about this band from reading a pitchfork review. They said it sounds like "Yeah Yeah Yeah's" and "The Kills". I can see the comparison, but it's not the greatest description.
I would say they sound like PJ Harvey fronting Black Rebel Motorcycle Club....but better.
When I first bought the album, I wasn't able to listen to it the way I listen to an album before judging it. When I finally got a chance to sit and listen to it by myself, I was blown away. The vocals are fantastic and the instruments blend great! The only things that prevent this from being a 5 star album is the lyrics aren't always great and I wish it would have been recorded more dry and rough. When you make an album like this it needs to sound as dirty as what the music is. That's what I love about Yeah Yeah Yeah's:Fever to Tell, the production fits.
I'm rambling, so let me just get a couple more things in about the album:
1. There isn't a bad song on the album.
2. Not many british bands sound like this (especially in London)
3. Get the bonus disc version, it's a couple of extra bucks, but worth it. Great demo and live releases.
4. Female vocals are great in dirty, sinister, dark albums.

The Duke Spirit - Cuts Across The Land
This `Special Edition' of `Cuts Across The Land, which has a bonus CD of live sessions, will cost a little more but I reckon it is well worth it.
This album was released in the UK three weeks ago, along with the normal version, after much anticipation. It is the debut LP from five-piece `The Duke Spirit' and it certainly doesn't disappoint. This edition is the one I bought and I also had the good fortune to see the band live at the London Astoria on May 21. I had high expectations and could have been heading for a big disappointment but I was blown away...

The heavier end of indie rock perhaps isn't something that the UK has been famous for these last few years but just maybe The Duke Spirit will change that? One thing that makes them slightly different is their lead singer, and main lyricist. Forget direct comparisons to other artists right now! The band are talented and amazingly versatile, which is just as well, because Liela Moss is the glue that makes `Duke Spirit' stick. Her vocals cut across the wall of noise of the harder tracks and infuse the slower numbers equally - she also adds some harmonica playing to `Hello to the Floor' (and would play drums too if given half a chance) - and that's just on the CD.

I thought about reviewing each track but decided it would only reflect my current personal preferences. My suggestion would be to get a group of like-minded friends over to listen to it and then play a game of "suggest the influences". Track #7 Fades the Sun is as heavy as this album gets and it reminded me of something from long ago but it took me ages to remember exactly what. The shocking truth, when it came, was the album `Glory Road' by Gillan (1980). If you like Cuts Across The Land and get the chance to see them live don't think twice; just buy a ticket and go!
So close to 5-stars for me but ultimately you decide.

Richard

There has been a deplorable fashion in recent years in the British mainstream, and doubtless elsewhere, for insincere sounding plodding mid-tempo songs by groups of faux-sensitive men. At times there has been more heart-wrenching sensitivity on Top Of The Pops than in reality there is in the whole wide world. It is not what I am looking for in music, and it seems to be in girl-led acts like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Elastica and PJ Harvey that I find the dispassionate, unsentimental, occasionally sneering and oftwhile malevolent attitude that I like.
Duke Spirit are a shining example of an original girl-led band who are railing against the prevailing tide and providing a no-nonsense alternative. Liela Moss's vocals exude effortless cool and when any emotion fights its way past the punkish guitars and spirited tambourines, it sounds appropriate and sincere, plus she also blows a mean and well-placed harmonica. The band seem to have been influenced by all the right people from the sixties to the present, and have not been sidetracked by musical cul-de-sacs such as Britpop, and at 45 minutes the album is in no danger of outstaying its welcome.
Four of the band's A-sides are included on the album and the British edition adds as a bonus track their superb 2004 single Dark Is Light Enough.
I would recommend seeking out the 2CD edition of the album. The bonus disc Souvenirs offers 5 high quality eight-track demos of songs not included on the album, plus radio session tracks of five that are, including two acoustic performances for Virgin Radio's Razorcuts, and is well worth having.

A review of a record and a group that caught me completely unawares and then was listened to for an entire month making me a total screaming fan by the time I saw them live in Ann Arbor? Not a balanced one anyway. I love this band. They are original with stirring music to go with intelligent lyric. A new force in my mind that should be better known and recognized. There are NO weak tracks on this album. Leila moves like Axl Rose and sings like a cooler, female Jim Morrison. How's that for an incoherent raving fan review?

Tasty and addictive, well-crafted. I was surprised by how solid this album is - not a single filler song or one ounce of fluff.

source: www.alternativemalta.com
(review also covers <Lion Rip> single)

My introduction to The Duke Spirit was truly accidental. Probably it's thanks to the fact that I'm such a Rough Trade whore. Not only is it my favourite label but it has a great variety of albums that are hard to get on this rock. Anyway on opening the package a little blue cardboard sleeve slipped out.

It was The Duke Spirit's first CD single (following a mini album and a vinyl single) `Dark is Light Enough'. ( By the way, I was charged for this) Now I have read about this London five piece and I was curious about them. On playing that single I felt like I was slapped and had a bucket of ice cold water chucked at me. This was BRILLIANT the music was gutsy and had a stylish swagger and the tunes? Damn those melodies must have been made out of glue or something cause they stuck to my head.

After this little life changing experience I went to tell the head honcho of alternative Malta and after a bit of wrangling we managed to get the next two singles by this gem of a band. `Cuts Across the Land' and `Lion Rip' The question is. Have the band kept up this brilliance?
The Answer is a big fat... YES. The two singles are a progression in sound, tunes everything. Even frontwoman Leila Moss' voice gets more `PJ. Harvey' by Lion Rip'.
`Cuts Across the Land' Starts of with a drumbeat and the song lurches into life. Especially when Moss intones `Can I suck you in?' complemented by a dirty riff, yes, it does conjure images.The single is backed up by the lullabyesque `Souvenir'. How yin and yang is that?- The `Spirit can not only rock but they can roll too.
`Lion Rip' and it's b-side `Now be Still' is just as rootsy and has more bravado than a room full of Liam Gallaghers. Riffs galore, big drums and an instant mosh factor all incorporated into four handy minutes. Savour.
I just feel that this band will set the world alight. With their debut proper coming out soon I think ears will prick up and love this band. Dukes? Nah these are the heirs to the throne!

Let me state upfront that I come to this album AFTER having purchased the Duke Spirit's excellent 2008 "Neptune" album, which made my "best of" list for the year. For whatever reason I never bothered to check out the band's debut album (originally released in the UK in late 2004, finally released in the US in early 2006), until now.

"Cuts Across the Land" (15 tracks, including 3 bonus tracks; 52 min.) starts off with the excellent hard stomping title track (UK single). The band formed in 2002 and released many singles and EPs leading up to their debut album, and this album is a result of several of those tracks (such as the excellent "Red Weather" from the 2003 "Roll, Spirit, Roll" EP), along with then-new music. "Lion Rip" and "Love Is An Unfamiliar Name", both UK singles, are featured on here as well, and they remind me of Grace Slick in a bluesy-rock setting (singer Liela Moss is quite the stage presence too, more on that later). This album was released in many different configurations (several of which are available here on Amazon). The US release featured 3 bonus tracks, "Take A Look Around", "So Good To Hear" and a demo version of "Boot Hill". In all, quite the promising debut album, even if not as great as "Neptune".

I first saw the band live in early 2008 when they opened for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, what a great bill that was. As it happens, I saw the band again not once, but twice, this past weekend in Cincinnati: first at an acoustic in-store performance (where I bought this album), and the next day in full-band mode, opening for Incubus, at Riverbend (an outdoor amphitheatre). I was amazed how much better, and tighter, the band brought the same songs (mostly from "Neptune") I heard last year. This band ROCKS, and Liela Moss is a major rock star in the making, with incredible stage presence. Can't wait to see where they go from here.

a GOOD debut album!!! a saw them last year in NY, and i have to tell you that's so much better playing live!!!

The first time I heard the Duke Spirit was "Wooden Hearts" and I stopped in mid conversation and listened, This band has it all. Poetic lyric beautifully sung and a very tight music behind it. When was the last time you purchased a record and EVERY song was good and you listened to it six months later? This is something that one can keep on re-discovering.

I saw them live two nights ago, and if you can do it - go. It was a very powerful performance where I felt on the verge of some sort of epiphany, bopping hard and smiling the whole time.

Definitely my favorite new band for 2005-2006 and cannot wait to hear more of their new stuff.