26 January 2007
Jim Merrett
Klaxons, Madeleine Peyroux, Indi Forde, My Chemical Romance, Patrick Wolf, Blood Brothers, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Lior, Cass and Slide, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Little Man Tate, Mr Hudson & The Library
"Hearing it is like breathing air for the first time. And once those short sweet three minutes are up, the chant lingers until there is no silence anymore, just ‘Golden Skans’ rotating in your head for eternity."
Klaxons – Golden SkansEmerging from the hyperbole is this mighty asteroid of shimmering space goodness with a harmony that infests your brain so swiftly it is like that particular organ was invented just to rattle this song around. Hearing it is like breathing air for the first time. And once those short sweet three minutes are up, the chant lingers until there is no silence anymore, just ‘Golden Skans’ rotating in your head for eternity. That album is so close we can almost smell it.
Madeleine Peyroux – A Little Bit
Imagine Randy Newman, only a woman. Maybe less calculated, this Wurlitzer organ driven romp effortlessly soundtracks an imaginary Pixar animation in your head. Like we needed a clue as to where Madeleine was going with this, the b-side is a cover of Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’ encompassing the skills of KD Lang. What better way to break up Terry Wogan’s soothing yet incomprehensible musings on Radio 2 of a morning?
Indi Forde – Crystal Green
No relation to Soylent Green, although it may make you want to eat yourself, this sounds an awful lot like James Blunt but with a bit more sincerity. So that’s an easy way to dismiss all singer-songwriters, but it is the only way they will learn.
My Chemical Romance – Famous Last Words
The anthemic finale of MCR’s cancer ward concept album is a defiant holler in the face of those who would hurl bottles of piss at them. At least that’s how it is billed. In truth, how you get to the end of this stadium rock barrel scraping flouncy emo nonsense and reason that life is worth putting up with is anyone’s guess.
Brakes – Cease And Desist
Supergroup, side project or just a means of keeping scruffy musicians off the streets of Brighton, Brakes have been quietly labouring away at two of the finest albums of the last few years. From a starting point of Oasis fumbling through the chords to ‘Day Tripper’, ‘Cease And Desist’ tumbles into a rockabilly punk blast. Not their greatest moment but decent enough.
Patrick Wolf – Bluebells
Bluebells reveals its intent within its opening seconds through the piercing screech of a firework scorching through the sky in your mind. The anticipation builds up but results in little more than a whimper. You keep on wondering if you return to it once it is lit, whether it explode in your face, but it never does - it only fades into the distance. Pretty but unfulfilling.
Blood Brothers – Set Fire To The Face On Fire
As if the face being on fire in the first place was not enough, Blood Brothers want to set it on fire again just to be sure it is really on fire. Noisy yelping pyromaniac goodness that really makes you want to incinerate everything in your path. A burning effigy of joy.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Satan Said Dance
A surprising twist, 'Satan Said Dance' sounds as the title suggests - darker and funkier than what went before. The wobbly vocals return, but this bleepy bass-heavy exhilaratingly clumsy call to arms reveals a sharp turnaround in the year since the last album. Even the most poker-faced indie kid would have to concede that dancing is kinda neat.
Lior – The Old Love
Bizarrely endorsed by the Ministry Of Sound, this Israeli-Australian seeps into your soul like a fungal infection. Campfire antics possibly picked up to eat into that Jack Johnson wandering minstrel market but does its job admirably. Soft, strong and thoroughly absorbent.
Cass And Slide – Lost Life
A throbbing cyber ping pong battle inside a temperamental super computer. "I need direction in my lost life," they complain before wandering down seven different paths at once. They sort of get there in the end.
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – Lay & Love
A contemplative first single from the new album that lays a haunting acoustic skin over a fuzzy bass pulse, with the crackle of embers in the air. It hangs around like biscuit crumbs in Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s hairy face furniture. A stunning introduction to ‘The Letting Go’.
Little Man Tate – Sexy In Latin
The first thing that you realise about Little Man Tate is that they are all actually quite massive. They also owe about 78 per cent of their record deal to the success of Arctic Monkeys. A cheeky farcical romp through the suburbs of 1960s Britain.
Mr Hudson & The Library – Too Late, Too Late
Like a dub Razorlight but in a good way, ‘Too Late, Too Late’ is an interesting proposition. A skanked-up parping reworking of an average indie sound proves there’s still life in the genre if only people were willing to invest the imagination.
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