25 April 2008

Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova – Falling Slowly
This is the song that won Best Original Song at the Oscars this year, and deservedly so.  Although pretty much any of the tracks reviewed here could have beaten 'Falling Slowly's rivals (no, A Fine Frenzy, not you), it doesn't take away from how lovely this is.

Plain White T’s – Our Time Now
The press release calls Plain White T’s ‘undeniably talented’, possibly in an attempt to produce the most deniable statement of all time. 'Our Time Now' is essentially a Blink 182 cast off circa 2000 with extra oh-oh-ohs, and the nicest thing that can be said about it is at least it’s not 'Hey There Delilah'.

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – 100 Days, 100 Nights
The Dap Kings are Mark Ronson’s favoured horn section, so '100 Days 100 Nights' sounds instantly familiar, thanks to the ubiquity of Ronson produced material on UK radio. In Sharon Jones they have a soul singer who is no stranger to diction, which must be a blessed relief for the Dap Kings after putting up with Winehouse slurring all over the place for the last couple of years.

The Feeling – Without You 
This is apparently about the Virginia Tech shootings. It rhymes "teenage gunman" with "I wonder what the time is in London", and that’s not even the worse thing about it. That’d be the syrupy, sentimental production that would cause even Peter Frampton to curl up his toes in embarrassment. It is possibly the most trite, misguided song ever written, and yes, that does include The Cranberries’ legendary turkey ‘I Just Shot John Lennon’.

Black Tide – Shockwave
This comes in two variations – ‘clean’ and ‘explicit’, as if to give broadcasters a radio friendly option. They needn’t have bothered. Aside from the fact that you can’t really make out any actual words, this will never, ever be played on radio. At least until someone invents a way of sending music through time and space, at which point 'Shockwave' will be gladly welcomed by LA disc jockeys for six months in 1986.

Plej – Borderline
Remember that year when Royksopp took over everything, everywhere? Shops, adverts, TV trailers, parties? Even though no one actually owned a copy of the album? Well, Plej’s chilled, spacey electronica has the potential to do the same thing. The ‘brains’ at BBC3 must be rejoicing.

Pendulum – Propane Nightmares
Not enough Embrace records start with Mariachi trumpets and build into Aha-esque crazy electronic stompers. This is essentially what 'Propane Nightmares' is. If Embrace had a smithereen of the imagination and invention Pendulum do, they’d be the biggest band in the world.

Monotonix – Body Language
Truly inept, dirty, punky metal. Boring: the only thing a dirty, punky metal track is allowed not to be.

The Casuals – Get It Together Man
Somewhere in the UK, there is a factory. This factory is the proud owner of four indie rock tracks. It’s entire output consists of taking these four tracks, slapping different covers, titles and band names on them once a week and sending them out to journalists, just to see if anyone notices that what they’re producing is exactly the same, week in week out. Now that New Noise has exposed them, perhaps they could stop doing it?

The Flies – The Temptress
It’s rare that a single could be truly called beguiling, but this thoroughly deserves it. It’s like the soundtrack to the best ever episode of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), one so good that it would never have been achievable on a sixties television budget. The lead singer is writing a book on the art of murder. This sounds like it.

A Fine Frenzy – Come On, Come Out
Three minutes thirty six seconds of painful nothing; a dreary piano led ballad, complete with typical female singer-songwriter vocals which strains the patience and makes you feel doubly sorry for fans of Ben’s Brother; firstly because they actually like Ben’s Brother, and secondly because they’ll have to sit through A Fine Frenzy’s support slot on the band’s upcoming tour.