Singles Round Up - January 12th

With the festive glow now a distant memory and New Years resolutions being broken left right and centre, it’s just as well we have the sweet hum of indie-pop rattling in our ears to fend off the tail end of the winter season.

Popping through our letterbox this week are some exciting sonic slabs from eclectic New York heroes TV On The Radio, the queens of pop and some gothic power-pop to name a few.

So before we get underway with another busy week of keeping you informed about the goings on from the world of music, here’s our weekly take on the singles round-up...

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Single Of The Week

TV On The Radio – ‘Dancing Choose’
When David Sitek and co. went from curious barbershop prog-peddlers to full-blown indie megastars is most likely echoed in the first bars of ‘Dancing Choose’. Angular drum blasts, sax bursts beamed down from a lunar brass party in the sky and a rhythm that could induce conga lines even in your local Woolworths would be enough to make it S.O.T.W. alone. But when Tunde gets to hollering out lines such as “From his boots to his pants to his comments and his rants he knows that any little article will do!” and starts referencing a “foam-injected Axl Rose”, it leaves us imagining what Outkast may sound like soundtracking an angular Armageddon.
(Download the Prefuse 73 remix of ‘Dancing Choose’ HERE)

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Also out today…

Pete And The Pirates – ‘Blood Gets Thin’ / ‘Jennifer’
Although Pete And The Pirates were being name-checked by many as being the band of ’08 at this time last year, they’ve clearly decided to there’s no time like the present to walk the plank and unleash a double-A-side single – a final cannon blast of jittering new-wave excellence. ‘Blood Gets Thin’ may start sounding a little too much like The Others, but soon races into a darker territories, whilst ‘Jennifer’ sounds not unlike The Rakes had they swapped the Weatherspoon bonus card for new-wave party vinyls: a sweet ‘n’ spiky ballad that proves there’s plenty of sonic outbreaks left in these swashbucklers yet.

White Lies – ‘To Lose My Life’
Binging to mind ‘80s goth minstrels The Mission soundtracking The Lost Boys, ‘To Lose My Life’ quakes the tweeters with its towering synth stabs and down-tuned bass rumbles. If we’ve had the neon-tinted legging side to the ‘80s revival, White Lies look set to whip up some kohl-eyed doom for the tail end of the noughties.
(Read our review of White Lies' debut album HERE)

Girls Aloud – ‘The Loving Kind’
Continuing their reign of having had more hits than Axl Rose’s mixing desk (this is their 20th single release!), undisputed pop queens Girls Aloud return with another glossy electro ballad with ‘The Loving Kind’. Its no ‘Biology’, but should secure them yet another chart-ravaging hit nonetheless.

Ratatat – ‘Shempi’
This punchy slice of electro elevation pretty much covers all the bases if you’re looking to gurn yourself into a gargoyle or re-fry your cranium with a hedonistic avalanche of beats and bleeps. NYC duo Ratatat unleash yet more of the slick synths previously favoured by Gallic dance bods (also a refreshing alteration to the current Italo outbreak). It’s fun enough to fill dancefloors, while also clever enough to keep vinyl disciples blogging ‘til their fingers bleed.