how can someone so young sing words so sad?

Random stuff

A new year, a new BBC's Sound of 20xx list. The list has become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, because it only features artists that are releasing singles or albums in the first couple of months of the new year. Still, we can check out a couple of artists, now can't we?

Jessie J - Do it like a dude

Jessie J won, but I'm not feeling her style at all.

The Vaccines - Post break-up sex

The Vaccines came in third. They sound like The Strokes with some girl group influences. Not really fond of the way theee siiingeeeeer prooolooongs hiiiis voooweeeeels while singing. Really, this is nothing new, I'm missing something.

Anna Calvi - Jezebel

Anna Calvi didn't make the top 5, but I like the bravado she displays. Looks like she's a solid live performer as well. Getting rave reviews everywhere, keep an eye out for this.

Ozark Henry - In the air tonight

I'm not going to say bad things about the new Ozark Henry single, it builds up nicely, and the lyrics are luckily less obvious than the horribly boring "this one's for you/this one's for me"-line from the previous single from the Hvelreki album. The reason why I'm including this track, is because of the uncanny resemblance between the opening melody of this track, and the opening melody of Melee. Not saying this is plagiarism or anything, but still...

Sherman - I'm on your side

Sticking with Belgian artists that like to live abroad for a while, I featured the Sherman single before, but now the official video is out (HD, so full screen is an option). Steven is looking good in this one (no homo), and the same can definitely be said about the female protagonist. Simple idea, executed well. GG.

Eliza Doolittle - Skinny genes

Eliza Doolittle has great legs. Or at least, she seems to think she does, since she's wearing hotpants seemingly everywhere she goes/shows up. I find the image she likes to present of herself highly confusing: her music has a distinct bubblegum pop-vibe that can appeal to the younger folks, on the other hand, the outfits sometimes seem to target a more adult audience. Check out the sleeziest purple halter top you'll see in a video this year (and the resulting sideb00b) in this video. I like the wordplay in the title though.

Cold War Kids - Louder than ever

Music critics overall lament the more poppy direction in which Cold War Kids are heading on their new album, however, I like the new single. It's catchy.

Agnes Obel - Riverside

Think Duyster. Something in the realm between Emiliana Torrini and Hanne Hukkelberg. Danish.

Kidda - Strong together

Nothing too special about this one, but it does have the "cheer you up" (if you were thinking about the pin up club right about now, that's your perverted mind, not mine!) quality.

Do not want

A lot of singles seem to hit the radio waves these days that are just bland and don't bring anything fresh in terms of lyrics or melodies. I'd urge you to stay away from the ones listed below. Either the music selectors @ stubru are slacking, or maybe the prospect of turning thirty in a couple of months is making me jaded, I don't know.

Fenech Soler - Demons

Band is called Fenech Soler. Pretty much says it all.

Neon Trees - Animal

This track by Neon Trees has an annoying chorus, and I feel I have to warn you about a band called The Plea (can't find a youtube link for this one), a new four-piece from Ireland that seem to think that there is not enough U2 to go around.

The Smiths special

I recently rediscovered the The Smiths...Best I & II compilations we got lying around here, and whereas previous attempts to really get into all the tracks had failed, this time, thanks to the World Of Warcraft "albums on endless repeat because I'm too lazy to alt-tab out and switch cd's and really, I hadn't noticed this was the fifth consecutive time the same album was playing anyway"-marathon-playing-session-haze, I'm finally hooked. I read somewhere that some people find the track selection of this double "best of" album to be random and ill-picked, I myself can live with it. Maybe the problem is that The Smiths had so many good tracks even 2 albums doesn't suffice to include them all.

So first of all, I strongly urge you to check out this (or any for that matter) The Smiths "best of" album you can get your hands on. Really, this is elementary and über-influential listening material, right up there with Pornography and Disintegration by The Cure and Unknown Pleasures and Closer by Joy Division.

I also want to share some The Smiths facts that I was unfamiliar with before:

• I guess I only knew the poppy side of the Smiths before, but actually they started out with some post punk influences, which you can hear on their earlier tracks. Usually the lyrics by the Mozzer and the guitar work by Marr get the most praise, but there's actually some pretty good basslines going on as well in the earlier days, when the bass player wasn't doing too much drugs and stuff.


• As far as music videos go, there's not that much going on, I'm afraid. Most videos start with white letters on a black background stating the song in question, and then the rest of the video usually comprises of a The Smiths performance, with the Moz performing open-shirted (which tends to get pretty boring, probably even for the male chest enthusiasts out there), usually donning some flowers of some kind. Notable exception however would be the video for Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before.


• Anachronisms. Morissey seems to like to include some deliberate anachronisms into his lyrics. "As Anthony said to Cleopatra, as he opened a crate of ale" from "Some girls are bigger than others", to "And now I know how Joan of Arc felt/As the flames rose to her roman nose/and her Walkman started to melt" from "Bigmouth strikes again". There's probably more where that came from, but these are the only ones I found.

I also checked out some tracks that didn't make the best of (mostly the ones with the most interesting sounding titles, because that's how I roll), here's a rundown of some I liked:

Barbarism begins at home

A prime example of a track that's more funky than I used to accredit The Smiths for. Lyrically, a not so distant cousin of "The Headmaster Ritual". Corporal punishment was one of young Morissey's most pressing issues apparently. Musically, reminded me a little of the next three tracks.

Meat is Murder

Definitely a factor that contributes to the popularity of The Smiths within the hardcore scene to a greater or lesser extent is the fact that Morissey is a long-term vegetarian, and he explains why in the title track of their second album. The least you can say of this live rendition is that it's heartfelt.

Pretty girls make graves

Eerie guitar riff on this one. There used to be a band that went by the name of this track.

Cemetary Gates

Remarkably (given the title), this song has a light, poppy feel that reminds me of The Sundays. The intro to this track and the one to Sheila, take a bow seem to be identical.

Still ill

This probably is my favourite track on the compilation of the ones I didn't know already. Has the early post-punk vibe, and some great lines among those lyrics as well.

Girlfriend in a coma

Yet, this will probably be my all-time favourite track. Great intro, great contrast between music and lyrics, and I just love the ambiguity in the lyrics. And very concise as well.

Some girls are bigger than others

Morissey always had a great knack for picking epic song titles, but as far as I'm concerned, this one has to take the cake. Might just be the most intelligently phrased insult ever. Excellent guitar riff, lyrics are pretty poor overall on this one except for the splendid title. Oh, and there's nothing wrong with your audio system. The fade-in and fade-out in the intro are fully intentional.

A mistake on the part of nature

Reviews

School Of Seven Bells - Disconnect from desire (7/10)

My fingers are freezing slightly while I'm typing this, but I'm sure you'll forgive for keeping this entry non-verbose.

School Of Seven Bells hardly needs any more introduction, having been featured on this blog twice before with some excellent singles. I got a hold of their latest effort by this New York based poppy shoegaze-style band, and I can say I like most of it. It is a slight hit or miss record, the lesser tracks don't really annoy, they just drag on and nothing really happens. The good tracks however make up for it, and they'll all seem to draw inspiration from a different source. The echo in "Bye bye bye" has a slight Souvlaki Space Station -vibe, the elektronic sample in "Cammarilla" is Kraftwerk-esque, the vocals in "Babelonia" remind me of Cocteau Twins, and "I L U" draws heavily on the inescapable My Bloody Valentine influence. I was however disappointed by their performance at De Nachten (they played as a threesome, as twin sister and backing vocalist Claudia left/got kicked out of the band a couple weeks before); they started out real good, then the vocalist completely lost her voice, struggled through the rest of the set - that was subsequently cut short - and left the stage without anymore acknowledgement of the crowd. Plus, letting a drummer play along with a programmed drum track is always a little silly/unnecessary. Shame, because the setting was perfectly suited for them to make an impression. But I have a suspicion we'll hear from these guys in the future. Wasn't really non-verbose, now was it? I'll have to try harder.

The New Pornographers - Together (6.5/10)

I was a fan of Canadian ultrapoppy supergroup (a supergroup in Canada, apart from Neko Case maybe, none of the members is known in Europe except for the most diligent music fans) for three albums, as with many fans, they lost me a little on their slow and kind of boring "Challengers"-album, but luckily, fifth album "Together" again packs some punch. The band's weak spot is still the lyrics; both of the songwriters (A.C. Newman and Dan Bejar) both never seem to write personal stuff, but lose themselves in absurd writings (what about "Valkyrie at the roller disco") that never seem to go anywhere, which really decreases the recognisability and the singalong factor. Luckily, on about half of the tracks, the song structures and arrangements are that good that the lyrics don't even matter; this is true for the first five tracks and "Up in the dark". The rest of the material doesn't really cut it. Do hope to see these guys live again someday, especially now that Neko Case seem to tour along more often.

Random radio stuff

Laserkraft 3D is the maker of one of this moment's smash hits. "Nein, mann" is simply irrestible, a good advocate for the german language, and I especially like it because it's hard to believe that only in 2010 someone came up with the idea of using this theme for a song. The clicking beats kind of remind me of the classic "Answering machine" track by Green Velvet.

Another dance song I really like right now is Martin Solveig's new track. Sounds a little different (more dance, less groove) than his previous work, but still, good stuff. Dragonette seems to be a hip singer, she's also featured on a couple of other tracks right now.

Can't say the new Lykki Li track has completely won me over yet. Something in the drum rhythm reminds me of The Bangles.

Saying White Lies are into bombast is an understatement. They were the only band on the Pukkelpop festival that appeared in black and white on the stage-side screens, and their new video features a hospitalized boy singing the lyrics. Their previous album just nearly missed my skip-pile and I strongly fear the new album is going to be a miss. In this track, the chorus just does nothing and the vocals are way too overproduced for my taste.

Apart from the "Chasing pavement" single which I found decent at most, I never enjoyed any of Adele's work. Sure, voice is good, so what, if the songs are not. And I'm definitely not into her advocating/championing smoking every chance she gets. On this new single, she tries to do something bluesy/county, disregarding the fact that KT Tunstall did the same thing a lot better a couple years back.

This is my jam right now. Apparently, this is the first Asian American number one track in the US ever. Apart from the jumpy beats, the chorus really is what makes this track. It's actually a sample from the "Booty Bounce" track by Dev, who also features in the video. I've checked out some snippets of some other tracks by this band, looks like they're trying to be the Asian Black Eyed Peas (Will.I.Am, a "Time of my life"-cover? really?) or something.

The new Robyn track is pretty alright too. The melody/tempo in the verse really reminds me of another song, but I can't quite put the finger on it (yet).

Finishing off with some tracks by some compatriots, Sherman is the singer-songwriter project of Steven Bossuyt. He now resides in London and seems to be doing well, seeing that he got invited to do a session at the BBC. His new single "On your side" is pretty good, I prefer the more dynamic radio version to this acoustic performance however. A really well structured track, although I hope not all his writing is so dependent on lyrical clichés.

The new Goose album gets miscellaneous reviews. Not really into the new "Can't stop me now" -single, however, the title track of their new album is pretty cool. You could validly state this is their "Housewife".

Random nineties video

And closing off with another nineties video, Scott Weiland is such a mess right now, you could overlook the fact that Stone Temple Pilots used to be pretty cool. This is one of their first singles ever, the lyrics are somewhat controversial, it seems.