This week’s singles round up is brought to you by the letters F and O, and the number the lot of you.
Aww, just joking. You’re all lovely. You can stay. C’mon in, please.
Except you. Yes, you, and you know perfectly well why.
Non-marking soles indeed.
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Single of the Week
Django Django – ‘Storm’
Beach Boys meet the Beta Band in a shady back-alley bar off Broadway Market: alliteration overload for sure, but it says enough about this lovely lolloping song to tell you to check out more by Django Django. Their name might imply they’re from West Africa (does to me, anyway), but you’ll actually find the band stomping about east London, when they’re not calling in at Latitude Festival and Standon Calling in the coming weeks. They only formed late last year, but already there’s evidence enough in this song, and its flip ‘Love’s Dart’, to suggest there’s pop genius lurking within these lo-fi recordings. Give the group a budget, sit back and watch the magic happen: you could well be looking at the new Super Furry Animals (not that the old one’s past it, you understand).
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Also out today…
Green Day – ‘21 Guns’
Oh, to be 14 years old and get Green Day. I was once, and did, but this new single is unlikely to make much of an impression on anyone old enough to have bought ‘Dookie’ on its week of release. This track’s acoustic – a lament without focus, analogies delivered in a blinding flurry – but despite frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s best efforts there’s no emotion conveyed, the composition too stuttering of design to really affect the listener in the intended way. ‘21 Guns’ features on the soundtrack of the new Transformers movie, too, which unfortunately makes it utterly loathsome by association.
Read our review of Green Day’s ‘21st Century Breakdown’ HERE
The Dead Weather – ‘Treat Me Like Your Mother’
Jack and Alison – and friends – make a right racket and the world stops thinking about The White Stripes for… ooh, give it another week or so. ‘Treat Me Like Your Mother’ sounds like The Black Keys plugged into some serious alternating current – rough-of-edge blues possessed by fiery punk spirit. It’s not typical single material, especially when the trigger-happy video’s brought into the equation, but this cut from debut album ‘Horehound’ (REVIEW) is sure to get White aficionados all gooey with glee.
Read our uncut interview with The Dead Weather – part one, part two
Maximo Park – ‘Questing Not Coasting’
What is this now? The third single from ‘Quicken The Heart’, is it? The Newcastle indie outfit’s most recent long-player (REVIEW) picked up its share of plaudits, but honestly: who’s listened to it in the last month or two? That’s Maximo Park’s problem: their newest batch of songs are fine, enjoyable indeed for three-and-some minutes at a time, but few since those of debut album ‘A Certain Trigger’ have really stuck in the head – ‘Questing Not Coasting’ is no ‘Going Missing’, to say the least. Which is a shame, because they’re a band clearly capable of crafting absolute anthems when the mood takes them.
Reverend and the Makers – ‘Silence Is Talking’
The industry is falling apart, so we’re told. Yet Jon McClure still releases records. Something sure as shit ain’t right. There’s no doubting McClure is a passionate individual, as he talks a good game much of the time; but his music is uniformly turgid, and ‘Silence Is Talking’ is the worst possible collision of Roses indie-funk and nonsensical Oasis lyricism.
Master Shortie – ‘Dead End’
In 20 years, nobody in this country is going to be able to string a coherent sentence together if records like this continue to engage our kids. A failure at the BRIT School before taking the stage in The Lion King, Theo Kerlin (a.k.a. Master Shortie) raps about nothing of importance, using the requisite amount of yoof slang, to a tired beat – the end result’s vacuous in the extreme. Visually it’s all very vibrant, Shortie oft-draped in an explosion of neon, but a single-sense experience is one that leaves the listener wondering why they bothered.
Spinnerette – ‘Baptized By Fire’
Former Distiller Brody Dalle’s new group surprised a fair few with its mature, pop-savvy sound, and this single finds the vocalist on perfectly brooding form. The music around her – electro-rock with a tinge of ‘80s clunk – is fairly unremarkable in design, but serves its purpose – to elevate Dalle from punk pin-up to an artist for more mature audiences – well; perfunctory is the perfect word here. There’s better on the band’s eponymous debut album, but as an introduction this ticks enough investigate-further boxes.
Filthy Dukes – ‘Messages’
Skewed funk meets piano house, ‘Messages’ could be the single to launch Filthy Dukes into another level of commercial recognition. That Tommy Sparks’ vocals don’t provoke the listener into smashing their speakers against the wall is evidence enough of the dance duo’s abilities: they’ve taken an awful artist and squeezed the least-annoying performance possible from him. For that alone: one thumb up, at least.
Read our review of Filthy Dukes’ album ‘Nonsense in the Dark HERE
Smoke Fairies – ‘Frozen Heart’
So, Muddy Waters had his way with some fair maidens around the time Robin Hood was robbing from the rich, right? Because if not, how the hell does one explain a song like this?
Knifeworld – ‘Pissed Up On Brake Fluid’
Sounds like “paint hitting the cathedral wall” according to MySpace. You wish, Knifeworld – what this really sounds like is a watered-down Future Of The Left with slightly proggy overtones. Needs more bite, given its title.
White Belt Yellow Tag – ‘Tell Your Friends (It All Worked Out)’
If the year was 1999 and the publication was Melody Maker, I’ve no doubt this would be single of the week – it sounds huge, and all riffs and beats are in the right place (i.e. it’s pretty predictable, but well executed nonetheless – a little like early Doves). But ten years on, a little more subtlety is appreciated, and this comes off rather lethargic despite its best attempts at acting the rabble-rouser.
