27 February 2008

by Tom Mendelsohn

Madina Lake, Gallows, Fucked Up, The Rank Deluxe, Menomena, Cocean, The Hives, Sargasso Trio, Turncoat, Vampire Weekend, Duffy

"It has its function and it fulfils that function."

Madina Lake – House Of Cards
The emocore Mansun? Stranger things have happened at sea, but not by much. Anyway, this is taught, competent, girly, new-wave emo. It has its function and it fulfils that function

Gallows – Just Because You Sleep Next To Me Doesn’t Mean You’re Safe
Ask yourselves – and this goes double if you are in A&R – is bog standard hardcore punk really the future of music? Really? Truly? Is it really? Honestly? Is it really honestly? Is it? Is it really? Really and truly? Cheer-us-uppingly, this promo has both ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ edits. It briefly amused us to imagine that the ‘dirty’ edit would sound all smutty like Prince. It didn’t, sadly; it sounded like shit.

Fucked Up – Year Of The Pig
18:35 of ludicrous prog punk which utterly defies conventional reviewing. Much of it defies sense, too, and you are just going to have to make your own bloody minds up about this.

The Rank Deluxe – Tightrope
In this single’s capacity as particularly inept garage-rock gashcore, it’s rank alright. Boom! These things write themselves, they really do.

Menomena – Rotten Hell
M.E. for the ears.

Cocean – Pictures Fade
Pleasant but unremarkable atmospherics from a band from Barnsley, of whom none of us will ever hear again. Say it ain’t so and you’re a liar.

The Hives – We Rule The World (T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S.)
While applauding the excellent aura of silliness which saturates this one theatrical punk band’s attempts at funk, we can’t conscionably recommend it as a decent record.

Sargasso Trio – She’s A Woman
This song features bongos, and melodies which veer dangerously close to being a bit ethnic. The world music Zoot Woman, perhaps? People have been burned for less.

Turncoat – Wasted On You
Affecting Paul Weller’s unlovely vocal style hereby disqualifies any band from the right to any further review.

Vampire Weekend – A-Punk
Ignore what the rest of the internet says, this is a pretty good song. It’s not deep, and it’s not going to change the world, but it has ideas and it has promise and, crucially, it isn’t total shit like all of the rest of recorded human culture.

Duffy – Mercy
How about this for a novel fucking insight: Duffy is the new Amy Winehouse. Think about it, seriously. It makes sense. Anyway, if it were up to this writer, she’d be drowned in a bag of cats; but it isn’t, and she’ll probably sell a billion records instead.

Be the first to comment on this article

Elsewhere On The Site

NEW NOISES

NEW ALBUMS

LIVE

FEATURES