He’s got Grammy, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards just cluttering up his house, and has scored massive movies like The Great Gatsby, The Incredible Hulk, Ray, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge! and Love Actually. He’s collaborated with Massive Attack and Madonna, and written for the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta. Craig Armstrong is a busy man indeed, and yet here he is, finding the time to review the singles for us. Thanks, Craig!
The Glasgow-born composer has a good reason to pitch in – he’s just put out a new album, ‘It’s Nearly Tomorrow’, featuring vocal contributions from Suede’s Brett Anderson and Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile. Listen to ‘Crash’, featuring the Suede frontman, below, ahead of Craig’s opinions on this week’s new releases.
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Bat And Ball – ‘Lizard Cuts’
“I think the singer has a really beautiful voice, great guitar playing. Love the minimal arrangements and interesting production. It’s nice to hear something uplifting and well produced.”
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Circa Waves – ‘So Long’
“This sounds like the sort of band it would have been great to have been in as a lad – in fact, I think I was in one. Lots of energy, and I like the fact that it sounds live. Young kids making music: it should sound like this.”
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Dauwd – ‘Saleh’
“As a big fan of electronic music in general, I really like this as it sounds quite European. I like the use of the sparse electronics. When I worked with Baz Lurhmann on the film The Great Gatsby, I had the chance to work with The xx, doing some orchestral arrangements for them, and the space in this track reminds me a little of the space that they can create, although it’s very different sonically. I don’t know if the anonymity of the track is intentional, but I quite like that. It could be anywhere, but that’s interesting in itself.”
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Salt Ashes – ‘If You Let Me Go’
“Sounds like a great pop band. The programming reminds me of Patrick Leonard which is no bad thing. I think the singer has a great voice, and contrary to popular belief it’s actually very hard to make a good pop song. This definitely has something special.”
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Calvin Harris – ‘Blame’
“You might think that I would have no association with Calvin Harris due to my generation. However, my young daughter plays his music on rotation, especially the track that I really like – I think it’s called ‘Summer’. He obviously has great (apparent) ease at putting this music together, which is very personal to him. Good to see a fellow Scot doing so well.”
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Craig Armstrong’s ‘It’s Nearly Tomorrow’ is out now on BMG/Chrysalis. Find Craig online here.
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