January Singles Round-Up

It's now traditional that the music world agrees a ceasefire in December, allowing X-Factor hangers-on free reign to ride roughshod over the charts. A few futile infiltration attempts aside, most realise it's just easier that way. Let Cowell have his fun, because January sees things return to something resembling normality in terms of singles releases.

Not that considerations of the calendar bother Ash any more, now that they are taking the tag 'singles band' to worryingly literal extremes. Space Shot is the eighth in their 26 single series. It has their typical big chorus and laconic delivery, but really it's a shadow of the band that thrilled me years ago. Another group of Irishmen do a little to pick up the slack for Ash in the form of Fifteen Minutes with Another Self Portrait, a far more endearing slice of energetic guitar pop.

Speaking of endearing, Ben Dalby's Doctor Can is an impressively crafted piece of bass-led songwriting. It's absorbing and just a little bit 80s though not in that horribly contrived La Roux way. Arno Cost flies in the face of Dalby's conciseness with his remix of Cicada's One Beat Away. Nicely textured electro it may be, but there's no need whatsoever for it to exceed seven minutes.

January's pleasant surprise comes from Longbenton's Nev Clay whose song Tony Robinson's Tears is a breezy, charming exercise in modern folk which tells the tale of a particularly absorbing episode of Time Team. Nev has the sort of authenticity Paolo Nutini would slay his granny for. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you, but Nutini's 10/10 is a derisory lump of ironically-titled shite which sees him for some inexplicable reason pretending to be Jamaican. Hadouken are equally impossible to take seriously as their faux-everything, Sub-Skins drivel-fest Turn the Lights Out hammers another nail in their coffin. Winter Kiss by Young Guns is no better, as a bunch of rock kids from High Wycombe try and fail to disguise their place of birth.

The antithesis to this posey horror comes in the form of Mixtapes and Cellmates' Soon and Victorian English Gentlemen's Club's Bored in Belgium. The former represents that gorgeously melodic and vaguely shoegazey pop the Swedes always do excellently. The latter is a quirky, playful line in yelping indie-pop. Both are excellent, and head and shoulders above much of the rest of January's offerings.

The Tailors - Come Dig Me Up (Album)

As the years glide by, trends come and go in music. As the artform which is most easily misused as a fashion statement only to be quietly discarded when the tide of public opinion changes, this is of course inevitable. Increasingly (and equally inevitably) bands will eschew the choppy seas of ‘the scene’ in favour of that gently drifting stream which ultimately doesn’t really lead anywhere but which is blissfully unaffected by trendy crosswinds. This waterway is often navigated by the sort of bands who make simple, unassuming pop music.

There are the likes of Left With Pictures, who are devastatingly adept with a simple melody. Then there are the sort of interchangeable and pointless scumbags who smash the bland-o-meter and thus invariably end up on Radio One six times a day. And then you have the likes of The Tailors who sit right in the middle of middle-of-the-road. This is a term which is often used as an insult, but in this context an insult is not what I mean. Equally though, on approaching Come Dig Me Up, their second album, it is important to go in with your eyes open. What you will get will be a pleasant and often pretty half an hour of music, but it is unlikely that it will ever be a particularly rewarding experience.

The album takes its cue from American alt-Country records, as it bobs along gently on arrangements lead by delicately strummed acoustic chords and piano. Singer Adam Killip’s care-worn voice sits perfectly with its backing, but at the risk of promoting an unhealthy lifestyle, I can’t help but think that it would benefit from a slug of whisky and a few fags to make it sound a bit more lived in, and give things that all-important bit of edge. ‘Impossible Wonder’, for example, is a well-constructed ballad which, like the rest of the album, can’t be faulted for competency, but would be all the better for being a little more scuffed up.

Notwithstanding the faults of Come Dig Me Up, it isn’t without its high-points. The slightly insipid opening track ‘Pictures of Her’ is washed away by ‘Bow Road’ and it’s jaunty, carefree refrain. There is also penultimate track ‘Crocodiles’ which appears to tell the tale of being disembowelled by the titular animals. The song is carried by a delicate melody which is at odds with the gruesome (although admittedly probably metaphorical) imagery.

‘Crocodiles’ segues into ‘Flying Blues’ which is an oddly jarring way to end the album. The band bare their teeth for the first time with crashing drums and power chords, which would be a welcome slice of diversity but for the fact that it all comes across very disjointed. The little quiet bits in the middle before the guitars kick in sound like they belong in a different song. It’s a strange way to finish off the record, and doesn’t really reflect what The Tailors are as a band. If you hadn’t been paying attention for the 28 or so minutes that precede it (sadly something which is not entirely impossible to imagine), and just dipped in at the end, I suspect you’d be left feeling pretty disoriented.

Ultimately, The Tailors are quite obviously good musicians. They clearly know how to write what most people would term a good song. They just need to consider the fact that this alone will not make them a good band. There’s potential here, but they need to shake off some of their niceness if they want to be truly memorable.

Trouble Books - Ones to Watch

The second of my two pieces in NARC's Ones to Watch in 2010 article:

Trouble Books are the ultimate accompaniment to the miserable rainy nights which probably won’t shift until about July. Their sleepy ambient noises have graced Akron, Ohio for a good few years now, but only in the last twelve months have they surfaced on the UK radar, after MIE Music issued the breathtakingly pretty ‘The United Colors of Trouble Books’. 2010 heralds a new album (‘Gathered Tones’) and a UK tour is planned, so we should see their elegant, woozy pop reach a bigger audience. It makes you wonder, what other secret gems have been lurking across the pond?

Arrows of Love - Ones to Watch

One of two pieces to appear in NARC's Ones to Watch in 2010 feature:

Arrows of Love are a mini super-group based in London and comprising a revolving cast of musicians who have previously worked with the likes of Hush the Many, Jamie T and Courtney Love to name a few. They have won an array of plaudits already for their singles so far which have been sharp, catchy, and tinged with that same hint of menace that characterises the best Sonic Youth songs. If they can put together an album which can match the quality of Burn This Town and The Illusionist then 2010 is theirs to do with as they see fit.

Gig of the Year (Take 2) - Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Newcastle O2 Academy - 3/12/09

After last Thursday, I had little choice but to amend my choice for the Muso's Guide Gig of the Year piece. Good job it hasn't been run yet!

It isn’t just a trick of my memory that the best gig I’ve been to this year also happens to be my most recent. It’s just that Yeah Yeah Yeahs were THAT good at Newcastle Academy on December 3rd. It’s not easy whipping the indie-kids into a frenzy in a venue of that size (I’ve seen plenty of bands fail) but from start to finish the band were a whirling buzz of energy, and the crowd had no choice but to comply. The new songs were as visceral as the old ones, and showed that the band can now put together a pretty meaty set after three albums. There was a real triumphant feel to the show which rounded off a fantastic year for the band. It wasn’t just the best gig I’ve seen this year, it was one of the best I’ve ever seen.

We Fell to Earth - We Fell to Earth (Album)

We Fell to Earth are a collaboration between longtime UNKLE stalwart Richard File and Wendy Rae Fowler (best known for her work with Queens of the Stone Age and Mark Lanegan). File was clearly aware that he was onto something with this project because his desire to completely focus his attention on it prompted him to quit his day job with UNKLE after nigh on ten years.

His decision would appear to be a sage one, as We Fell to Earth is an impressively engrossing debut album. The band’s manifesto is made quite plan right from the start with opening track Spin This Town. Its hypnotic beats and File’s mantra-like vocal delivery call to mind James Chapman’s best work with Maps.

From that point onwards, the record follows a fairly similar path to its opening moments. You‘d be forgiven for thinking that it is a path that we‘ve all seen trodden plenty of times over the last few years. It stops sufficiently short of copy-cat level, but that Maps parallel really is quite strong and there are even occasional echoes of 2009‘s biggest blog-hype victims the XX. That said, this doesn’t make its execution any less impressive. The key We Fell to Earth’s success is the same thing which made its counterparts so engaging - it has a certain intangible sense of brooding menace which draws you in and envelopes you right up to its climactic notes.

The most captivating moments on the record are those which see Fowler’s vocals drizzled over the songs. She is used sparingly throughout the album (perhaps a little too sparingly really), but on a few occasions she gets free reign. Two of these songs in particular, Sovereign and Be Careful What You Wish For are among the album’s high points. The backing tracks on both complement her voice perfectly, augmenting the atmosphere with ghostly synths and otherworldly percussion.

The album as a whole is an intriguing contrast between the muggy sultriness of the layers of noise and the sense of chill suggesting by the brooding basslines and the repetition-heavy vocal delivery. You get the impression that We Fell to Earth are conscious of this contradiction and play around with it purely to fuck with our heads. I get the sense that this is something which will give this record plenty of longevity, as there is hell of a lot to discover here, even notwithstanding the album’s reluctance to stray far from its formula. However, you also fear that the subtlety of the work will see it overlooked in most quarter. Therefore, I urge to persevere with it until it opens itself up, because the rewards are plentiful.

8/10

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Newcastle O2 Academy - 3/12/09 (Gig)

When you’re an indie luddite like me, it becomes a bit of a rarity to attend a gig which involves you running the gauntlet of vultures touting ill-gotten tickets outside the venue. Tonight’s appearance by Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Newcastle Academy is such an occasion, where the presence of a parade of scum-sucking touts serves as a reminder of the scale we’re dealing with here. The band have grown out of their days as NME hype victims into a permanent fixture in the indie big league. And rightly so, given the consistently high standard of their three full-length records.

But what of their live show? Well, it’s peerless. Karen O is the undoubted star of the show, a prowling, twirling, pogoing hipster dream, decked out in some sort of Amazing Technicolour Dream Poncho. Her voice is like razor blades dipped in honey, and when on ‘Cheated Hearts’ she sings “Sometimes I think that I’m bigger than the sound”, it’s with a glint in her eye. She knows she’ll never write a truer line, because she’s without doubt the most charismatic and engaging front woman we’ve seen this decade.

Not that it’s all about Karen, mind you. One of the things which have allowed Yeah Yeah Yeahs to endure the initial push is the fact that they are more than just KO and Friends. Drummer Brian Chase and guitarist Nick Zinner pull their weight too, and help to amplify the energy captured on the records. This applies as much to the synth-heavy songs of It’s Blitz! (understandably dominant in the setlist) as it does to the rawer older material. The newer tracks maintain their inherent groove, but still sit comfortably alongside songs from the first couple of records thanks mainly to Zinner’s guitar work which instils them with more raggedness than the versions committed to tape.

There’s a moment during the set tonight when the lights turn the ceiling bright blue and for a fleeting second you’re transported from a rainy December night in the North East to a field somewhere in the middle of summer. This sits perfectly with the triumphant, one-off feel of tonight’s show which can only be compared to that of a festival. The fact that the Academy’s floor is stickier than the boggiest of farmer’s fields only serves to add to that impression.

There are elements of tonight’s set which would come across as cloying and hackneyed in the hands of lesser bands than Yeah Yeah Yeahs. However, moments like the regular (and blatant) crowd-pandering screams of “Noo-caaa-sull” from Karen come across so enthusiastically that they just make the band seem more likeable. The same goes for the lighters-in-the-air acoustic version of ‘Maps’. Far from being a cynical and lazy ploy, it’s a genuinely warming slow dance fit for the first dance at the indiest of weddings.

It’s clear now that Yeah Yeah Yeahs are Indie royalty. Few other bands out there can grab your attention so fully and so completely that you want to squeeze as much as humanly possible out of every second you spend in their company. Tonight sees them absolutely at the peak of their powers, and twenty pounds seems an absolute bargain for the privelege of experiencing it. Did someone say ‘Gig of the year’? Yep, everyone in the room.