Augie March – One Crowded Hour – 1st October 2007
“Hello? Is that Radio 2? It is? Fantastic, I’m currently listening to what would most definitely be your single of the week if Steve Wright’s ears were to fall upon it…” is the beginning of the conversation I would have if indeed I were to ring Radio 2 in my new found radio-plugger job pushing this record from Aussies Audie March. ‘One Crowded Hour’ is that kind of song that is played in American Teen sitcoms when one beautiful person breaks up with another or on a hospital based sitcom in one of the more somber moments when someone has died and it’s not supposed to be funny. A very good song that has a poetic flow to it which is delivered fantastically by the lead singer, ‘One Crowded Hour’ is a song well worth checking out.
4/5
Cherry Ghost – 4AM – 1st October
This song is bloody lovely. I genuinely can’t wait for an excuse to get on a train back home to Sheffield just so I can listen to this whilst the carriage gently rolls through the green hills of the Penines, the setting sun turning the sky a fierce orange as I ponder my current status as a bachelor. “There ain’t no hiding place on earth, that lonliness ain’t been there first” sings Simon Aldred, A wistful lyric that stands out in very well structured song. This is a song that will have you, your mother and your grandmother all tapping your toes in a communal unison of melodic niceness. I repeat, this song is bloody lovely.
4/5
mewithoutYou – Nice and Blue (pt. Two) – 1st October 2007
Yanks mewithoutYou are strumming their tunes around the UK this October, including a date at Manchester’s very own Night and Day and as a band known for their live performances it could be worth going to check them out after hearing this track. With a Bloc Party-esq arrangement and Editors style production mixed together with a is-he-speaking-or-is-he-shouting vocal style this track succeeded in intriguing me to discover more about the band. They appear to be popular enough in their home country and with the comparisons I’ve made above there is no reason why they couldn’t get a following over here in the UK. The only criticism on my part is the un-radio friendly outro which results in the song ending on a bit of a limp but apart from that it’s worth a listen. Right, I’m off now to go and find Nice and Blue (pt. One)…
3/5
Dirty Projectors – Rise Above – 15th October 2007
Music. It’s all been done hasn’t it? All genres covered? All styles exploited? All concepts concepted? Evidently not as David Longstreth, the man behind Dirty Projectors, gives us ‘Rise Above’; an album that all encompasses every definition of the word niche there has ever been. See, what David has done is made a cover album… from memory. He’s taken the ‘seminal’ (according to the press release that is) Black Flag album ‘Damaged’ from 1981 and re done it as he remembers it. Baring in mind he hasn’t heard this album since his adolescence the result is weirdly brilliant. It goes from being pleasant, to rather good, to horrifically abrasive; sometimes all in the same track, but it does leave you wanting to listen on just to find out where the hell the record is going next. I suppose you could call this ‘musical art’ if there is such a thing. He’s basically made a selfish album that is only going to be bought by those who either knew the original or by those who appreciate things a bit left of centre now and again. So there you go, if you fall into one of those two categories then go try it out! If you like Radio One and Hard-Fi however then please avoid it like the plague. It’ll just confuse you.
3/5
Kid Acne – Romance Ain’t Dead – 17th September
Kid Acne’s press release describes him as a ‘modern renaissance man’. I also know several French words yet when I use them I like to use them correctly and I can say with confidence that this record is merde. Proper merde. Why would anyone other then a cretin buy this?! Too stupid to be clever yet at the same time not stupid enough to be ironic; Kid Acne falls into musical purgatory and hovers there forever rapping about things that noone cares about. ‘Worst Luck’s’ repetitive chorus of “I got 2 phones like a drug dealer” leaves the listener hoping it’s a comedy record whilst at the same time praying it isn’t so they can tell their friends they’ve finally just heard something that is worse then Prinzhorn Dance School. The single ‘Sliding Doors’ could pass as semi decent dance record until he ruins it by inexplicably rapping about utter bollocks including the soon to be infamous line; “I like beans, I like sauce, I like sexual intercourse”. The fact that he is from Sheffield upsets me further as I myself also hail from the greenest city in England. It is a place of inherent beauty which does have its darker side (as beautifully captured by Alex Turner and Co) and this Acne fellow makes it sound like the third world would be a better place to frequent ones lazy Sunday afternoons. If there are genuinely people like this walking the street in Sheffield then I don’t think I want to go home again.
1/5
Ash – Is The End Of The World – 10th September
I believe it was Albert Einstein that said “Space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows”. Within the context of this review Space = Ash and Time = Good Singles and if I were to produce some kind of visual graph to represent when these two met at a cross junction of ‘time’ the Y axis would read ‘now’. This is dull. In my youth I was a fan of Ash, I genuinely was, and even past my youth into my manhood I still bought there records. I believe there are some great tracks on 1994’s ‘Meltdown’ album; the uncharacteristically heavy ‘Clones’ and the summer anthem that was ‘Orpheus’ being 2 personal highlights but ever since they lost Charlotte Hatherly Ash have simply been weak. I hate to use such an obvious statement but regardless: End of the world? More like end of a once great band.
2/5
The Royal We – L’Enfant Terrible – 24th September 2007
Geographic Music must have some money to throw away as they’re currently planning to release The Royal We’s debut single whilst knowing in full consciousness that the band are set to split in a few months time. An interesting marketing angle granted, yet it is quite baffling that this song is only ‘good’ at best. Surely if you were going to go tits first into releasing a single by a band destined to split up then you’d make sure it was a brilliant, neigh, superb single? I like the catchy chorus and the violin ‘lick’ (if you will) but if this does well enough to convince the members of The Royal We to fob off art college and go on tour then I’ll show you my pigeons.
3/5
SixNationState – We Could Be Happy – 10th September 2007
I firmly believe that certain songs would do better if the weather was different. If I was writing this review in a sunblushed town square, sipping a mochachino whilst watching effortlessly beautiful woman stroll past in flowing dresses then this single would have received 4 out of 5. This is because I’d agree with the chirpy lyrics being sung. Unfortunately I’m not and SixNationState are currently sounding like a watered down version of an already watered down Thrills. The song is toe tapping enough with a bright acoustic guitar and pleasant harmonies during the chorus but it’s instantly forgettable. The baffling thing is the B-Side ‘1,2,3,4’ is far superior to the single which I’ve given extra mark as I’m an inherently optimistic person.
2/5
The Wombats – Lets Dance To Joy Division – 15th October 2007
Ah The Wombats, the current darlings of the northwest music scene. For us ‘alternative’ types we know pretty much everything you need to know about them; MTV2 favorites, Zane Lowe adores them and even Edith ‘I’m not actually that good of a DJ’ Bowman made them her single of the week. Unfortunately for The Wombats it’s not us ‘alternative’ types they need to inform of their presence. It’s the masses who rarely glance past the top 20, who, when they eventually do discover the scousers, will undoubtedly buy their singles up by the proverbial bucketload. Rightly so too because it’s bloody brilliant to put it quite simply and although I would argue it’s the weaker of their last 3 singles, that’s not a bad thing. I just can’t get it out of my head. The Wombats are destined for chart domination. And you can quote me on that.
4/5
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