11 August 2008
Dan Worth
Like A Thief, Esser, Delays, Phantom Limb, Pacific, Broken Records, Exit Ten, Santogold, Beth Rowley, The Futureheads
"This is an utterly gorgeous acoustic guitar piece with beautiful vocals delivered with warmth and clarity and washed in an undercurrent of gospel. Spellbinding."
Like A Thief – Dilemma!! Dilemma!!From the song title (four exclamation marks!!!!) you’d think this was going to be a super-upbeat song from some new disco-pop band. But actually it’s a mid-tempo piano led pop-rock song, with the pleasant voice of lead singer Holly Jazz Lowe delivering some acceptable lyrics. Overall it’s quite good!!!!
Esser – Headlock
Headlocks? Shudder…memories of the schoolyard. This is a weird, but interesting, piece of spoken lyric techno/electro mashing that while not especially instant is at least attempting its own sound and hoping others out there will listen.
Delays – Keep It Simple
The piano at the start of this is exactly the same as that fill from the Baywatch theme tune. Thankfully this is better than that and you won’t be hearing it on any two-Smirnoffs-for-the-price-of-one student nights. It’s not very good but if you set out to write a pop-song with vocal hooks and lyrics that sound meaningful but are really a bit hollow, you'd be hard pressed to top this.
Phantom Limb – Don’t Say A Word
Phantom Limb – so that’s going to be death metal then? Or maybe screamo? Maybe rock and roll? Wrong, wrong, wrong. This is an utterly gorgeous acoustic guitar piece with beautiful vocals delivered with warmth and clarity and washed in an undercurrent of gospel. Spellbinding.
Pacific! – Sunset Blvd
Exciting…and 80s synth keyboard intro. Oh no…they’ve turned it in to the intro for what is, essentially a Wham B-side, with a bass and drum line that could actually be from ‘Last Christmas’ and a rising piano line pre-chorus stolen from Elton John’s ‘Are You Ready’. Shame, for four seconds there that had potential.
Broken Records – Slow Parade
An interesting one this – slightly reminiscent of the clever rock of The Divine Comedy, if delivered with more falsetto. Mid-song it stops dead and builds into a fantastic climax of drums, trumpets and guitar, that leads to the utterly obvious Sigur Ros comparison. Broken Records could be a name to remember.
Exit Ten – Warriors
A rock song that fizzes along with crunchy guitar parts and rolling drums that no doubt will prove popular with those who like this sort of thing. It’s hardly original but it ticks all the boxes, and sometimes that’s just fine.
Santogold – Lights Out
Uber-cool Santogold plays the pop-card here with a nice, Blondie-esque song – melodic vocals, simple guitar lines and a chorus you could hum.
Beth Rowley – Sweet Hours
A proper pop artist here. She’s got a lovely voice has old Beth and the sound is pretty groovy, maaann. Actually this is quite good, for what it is: nothing special but somehow rising above criticisms of ‘generic’ or ‘pop-by-numbers’.
The Futureheads – Walking Backwards
It’s coming at me through the trees…what? Not a Kate Bush cover? More talk-rock (is that a genre?) here that already feels a bit dated even if it was only two years ago. Such is the fickle nature of the music industry.
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