Float like a bee, sting like a butterfly

TOTW is here...a little late. I'm very sorry - I've had little time to get on the net recently. I wish I could say it was a hot girl, but she's just average.

Anyway - for this week's I've decided I must think like an Asp....since I only came up with my favourite bands last week as winners.

So first I'll throw in the woman from a broken home. Mads is back with the second single from her 43rd album, titled Nothing New.

Give It 2 Me is the track - remember the scene where your Dad embarasses you with his new Casio keyboard, as the whiny depthless synth sounds pulse away pretending to be something they're not along with the Bossa Nova preset beat pattern which sounds as good as hitting two pieces of plastic together?

Okay, maybe it was just me. And I still haven't got the hang of this have I? I mean I love this song, I love Madonna - love it when women vocode their voice so much it sounds like a dalek, it really rocks. Please buy this song.

I'll throw in the Ting Tings here. This is no Not My Name - infact, it's not very interesting at all. As tracks from their album go, this is one of the blandest most unoriginal ones to be honest, but is still okay as a song (see, I complemented it!).

So, Shut Up And Let Me Go, which sounds a little too much like New Young Pony Club, who sold their soul to Intel with Icecream, follows the pattern perfectly with the Apple iPod ad.

So the two videos that get posted, to imply they in fact 'won' this, the most desired of all weekly chart countdowns...

I'll firstly throw in Gabriella Cilmi. An unfortunate emergent from the soul sounding crew of girls being churned out, Sweet About Me had an annoying hook, but was way too retro and lacked anything that hadn't been heard 40 years ago - Don't Want To Go To Bed Now has another great hook, and a bouncy beat - yeah, it's fine. I won't buy it, but I wouldn't turn it off if it was on the radio. That's a good sign, honest.

You'll have to make do with the live version, all the official video's have embedding disabled - spoil sports.

Gabriella Cilmi - I Don't Want To Go To Bed Now


New release here, though been out in America a while is Melee, and Built To Last. Typical piano rock, not too different to OneRepublic and the such like. It's a pleasant enough summer tune. It could be anyone really...after it's forgotten it'll get covered by some boyband in 5 years or so and be made to sound even soppier, so get it whilst it's at least got a bass guitar and a single vocalist on it.

Melee - Built To Last

The letter F

There is a partial theme with the first three tracks this week - songs that were made famous not by the original performer. Everyone knows Peggy Lee's version of Fever and Roberta Flack's The First time I ever saw your face was her breakthrough track. However, the former is credited to Eddie Cooley and John Davenport (aka Otis Blackwell); and the latter was written by Ewan MacColl  for his wife Peggy Seeger. Fly me to the moon was written by Bart Howard for Felicia Saunders in 1954, first recorded by Kaye Ballard in the same year - but it's this swing version recorded a full 10 years later by the great man himself we all know and love.

The letter F

Technorati Tags: Otis Blackwell, Peggy Lee, Ewan MacColl, Roberta Flack, Bart Howard, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, Europe, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Sting, Manfred Mann, Radiohead, Crowded House

Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend

I don't actually feel too bad about reviewing the self titled debut album from Vampire Weekend so many months after it was released. Two reasons: firstly, it's still present in the charts. More and more people seem to like them as the weeks go by. But secondly, if I had to describe the album in one word, it would be "summery".

I'd actually be tempted to say "Caribbean", especially when you listen to Cape Cod, and the introduction to Bryn. I don't think they actually use Steel Drums and dance down a beach, but you could imagine it. However, despite the instrumental choice in I stand corrected it's not Caribbean; and M79 is more baroque than anything else. Still summery though.

On the whole, it's a fairly frantic record. Fast beats, and lots of notes. Strangely, whilst that normally relates to dance music, "Vampire Weekend" is anything but. From the John Peel stage at Glastonbury they introduced A-Punk as "the only song of ours you can dance too", and I think it's actually a fair point. It's definitely more music to enjoy than music to spend an evening with.

I do, however, have one distinct complaint about the album - and that's the length of it. The number of tracks (11) is about usual nowadays - but they're all fairly short. There's no "long" track, and when you put the record into your play and it introduces a length of 37minutes you wonder what else they could have put on the CD - especially when some CDs (Sawdust by Killers for instance) manage a full 70+minutes. It does raise the question if they had extra material to put on the record, or if that's it. How long might it take to write enough content for a second album?

Of course, they say the best things come in small packages, and that's probably my only criticism of the album, which can't be a bad review all-in-all. Some tracks are stronger than others, Campus being a particular favourite here, but I wouldn't say there's any that are particularly bad.

I'm expecting the album will continue to hover around the charts for a while. So, whilst it does, I still would recommend heading out and buying it.

Bit of a naff week

Typical that there's nothing but summer palp out. I might even have to comment on rubbish stuff anyway as a contender.

Robyn came back from obscurity re-inventing the same old europop sound, now Annie has done the same. Remember Chewing Gum? Well, her new song is called I Know Your Girlfriend Hates Me. I think it's the same song except the hooks have been taken out. Bin it!

Primal Scream are back with a very layered return single. I much preferred their Evil Heat album sound, Riot City Blues was more gritty and now they seem to be shooting for the current indie trends. Shame. Well, anyway - lets put it here anyway.

Primal Scream - Can't Go Back


Right, and now - with sickening bias I throw in Crawley's only band. The Cure. Robert Smith and the gothlads are releasing a new single on the 13th of every month, and this is the 3rd. The sound of this album seems to be heading for the mixed pop mix seen on their last album and their mid-80's efforts. This song as a chorus hook which sounds almost Bond like. Wah guitars and bouncing bass lines and wailing vocals...it's so typically The Cure isn't it...and though it's a sub-par effort from them, it's probably the best release this week in my view. That's bad for the week.

The Cure - Sleep When I'm Dead

The Letter E

I can't really think of things to say to introduce these playlists now - you've all got the idea -  so, if there isn't anything special to say (as there isn't today), I think I'll just leave you with the music...

Technorati Tags: Tears for Fears, R.E.M., The Police, Annie Lennox, Cole Porter, Love Affair, Survivor

Hooray, Hooray, He's Away On Holiday!

Tunes of the Week 08 - #28

Well, time for tune of the week. And what a bunch we have for you. I've been left some tracks to put into contention - so without further ado, here they are: Newton Faulkner.

<5 minutes later>

Sorry, I overslept. That was a wonderful powernap. Almost as good as the one I almost had seeing Counting Crows last week before I made a quick getaway for the exit!

Also in the running is comeback queen Kylie, and The One. As our holidaying blogmaster left me a note, pointing out the BBC news pips being sampled in the beginning. True enough. This is Kylie refusing to leave the 80's, makes Impossible Princess seem positively futuristic. A zombie like song structure of synth pads and heavily produced vocals - sounds great in a way, but, well, pointless. She looks a lot taller in this video too.

There's some more acoustic guitars and sing like you're speaking lyrics from Aidan Smith on his track, Drapes In Black which can be found at his Myspace page. Now that I have no idea what decade I'm in, lets move on...

Travis are back, and releasing a preview single with no video it seems for J Smith. Follows on in the style from their last album nicely. However, it doesn't make my top two.

French band The Teenagers (featuring Errol from Fifteen Stories High I think ;)) have a new track out, as their own 20 year old sound permeates through.

The Teenagers - Make It Happen


I've probably mentioned these before, certainly on my blog if not here - but Brighton's nu-grunge act, Blood Red Shoes release one of the stand out tracks from their debut album, though Laura-Mary's hair continues to travel back in time itself with every release.

Blood Red Shoes - This Is Not For You

Mystery Jets: Twenty One (Repackaged)

If you wanted to form a rock band,  surely the last person you'd want to join in with would be your Dad. However, that's exactly what young Blaine Harrison did, and whilst Henry is no longer touring with Mystery Jets, his influence is still apparent in the latest album.

It's always the case - we do take some musical influence from our parents. And whilst they might not like "yoof music", there's often a clear chain of music from parental favourites to the music us youngsters like. So, given a chance to influence an entire band, Henry's "prog stuff" favourites do appear.

Yet, with the less direct involvement, it's clear that the record is a development or a 'growing up'. Most of the tracks aren't listing as being written by Henry, the majority are by Blaine - sometimes with or without other members of the band.

There's two exceptions. One is the bonus track on the repackaged version of the album - a cover of Aztec Camera's Somewhere in my heart - and for once my tendency to wait a while before buying an album has proved very useful. It's a faithful cover, and very "get up and go", giving you a bit of enthusiasm.

The other is the still exceptional Young Love. Written by guitarist William Rees (who also takes lead vocals) and bassist Kai Fish, after being a TOTW it's still a very strong contender for the Tune of the Year prize.

Young Love also highlights the thing that struck me most from the album - harmonies. There it's with Laura Marling, but there's plenty of songs where you can probably say there's two lead singers, singing different lines of music to make a harmonised tune - instead of boring predictable backing singers. Half in Love with Elizabeth is possibly the best example I'd have of that.

As the NME review states, the previous failing with Mystery Jets was that were a bit ramshackle. Some great pop songs, some not so. To an extent, I'd say it continues here. Some brilliant tracks, but some duds. I don't like hidden tracks at the best of times, and having to listen to dead air to find Twenty One wasn't worth the wait at all. Even in the main album, I can't say I'm a big fan of Umbrellahead.

But, overall, there's a lot more good than bad. Memorable tracks like Two Doors Down (TOTW21) sit pleasingly alongside tracks that I can't imagine anyone could dislike like The first to know. When it's so difficult to achieve perfection, you can rarely ask for more than "Twenty One" offers.