Calories - Basic Nature

About a month ago, Johnny Foreigner did a gig in Birmingham (and also one in London but that doesn't count because I don't like London) to celebrate the release of their new album. It was a great evening, for a wonderfully small amount of money. One of the several support bands that night was Calories. They were enjoyable, and after the gig I decided to investigate their albums on Spotify. A week or so of listening to nothing else later, I'd bought this (their second and most recent album) direct from their label. It was a bargain £9.50 shipped, and here's a link to it if you're interested. But for now, pictures.

Crazy artwork. There's a lot going on, none of which I totally understand but that's okay 'cause it's pretty.

Now this is something I've never seen before. The inner sleeve (printed with more of the same little pictures from the album cover) has got a little foam disc on it for the CD version of the album to live on. I'm surprised and very impressed that a small label would do something like this, and it's a pleasant alternative to just a download code. Also, the art printed onto the CD matches up with what it covers on the sleeve, which is some quite beautiful attention to detail.

Plain black record, no surprises here. The backs of both the outer and inner sleeves are largely mirrored versions of their respective fronts, which simultaneously is quite cool and hurts my head to look at. Nice. This vinyl version of the record is limited to 500 copies, so I'm surprised they're yet to sell out.

As you may have guessed from my introductory paragraph, I really love this album. It's a noisy rock album, but with the catchy choruses of a pop record. The three-song run of You Could Be Honest, FFWD and Orchard Girls in particular is unbelievably good, and each one has the power to lodge itself into your brain for days at a time. The whole album, though, is a lot of fun and I'm excited to see what they do to follow it. Both of the band's albums are on Spotify, and also their Soundcloud. Go listen.