Album Review: Miles Kane - Colour of the Trap

Miles Kane has been around for a while now; however, he has yet to really make his mark on the music industry. His main claim to fame was as one half of the Last Shadow Puppets with his close friend, Alex Turner.

Many would consider the Arctic Monkeys frontman to be the main draw of the Mercury Award-nominated side-project, yet Miles was arguably as influential to the sound of the Puppets as Alex Turner, if not more. This is evident from the sound of his debut solo album, which evidences a similar sound in many ways to the Puppets album, The Age of the Understatement. Where Colour of the Trap differs though, is that it is an incredibly upbeat and rowdy album compared to the more laid back musings of the Puppets’ debut album.

Album Review: Alex Turner - Submarine EP

It was about time Richard Ayoade cashed in the favour owed to him by Alex Turner for the numerous contributions he has made to the Arctic Monkeys. Ayoade – who most will know as Maurice Moss in The IT Crowd – has directed three Arctic Monkeys videos, including the brilliantly surreal video for ‘Florescent Adolescent’.

He also directed the phenomenal live Arctic Monkeys DVD, At The Apollo, which won ‘Best DVD’ at the NME Awards in 2008. In return, Arctic Monkeys’ frontman created the Submarine EP – the soundtrack to Ayoade’s directorial debut film, Submarine.

This is Turner’s first foray as a solo artist, and he demonstrates a startling maturity on this EP - which consists of a short intro and five full songs. From start to finish Turner sounds very comfortable, with his voice purring over beautiful acoustic guitars. The first track is the melancholic ‘Hiding Tonight’, where the minimal acoustic guitar brings Turner’s vocals to the foreground.