Despite adopting a band name that makes them sound like a close relation to several talent show also-rans, Little Comets are, in fact, a highly celebrated indie three-piece from the North East. Highly literate and unpretentious, their songs are often expertly crafted and held up lofty by the loving might of Robert Coles’s immaculate vocals. It’s fair then to approach their latest single ‘His Thunder’ – from their ‘Worry’ EP – with some anticipation, although wary that they might never again reach the soaring heights of ‘Joanna’. As it turns out, this latest offering comfortably manages to draw parallel with ‘Joanna’, even if it never manages to pull away from it. The triumphant, yet ultimately doleful chorus is enough to raise goose bumps to a flesh wound and really acts as a sort of showcase for the vocal talents and lyrical dexterity of their frontman. The remainder of the band, of course, play their part too – in particular, the deft riffs of Michael Coles keep the song ticking over beautifully. And so right at the tail end of the year, here we find ourselves with one of the best songs of it.
Crafted in a basement flat in Whitechapel, London, this stellar new outfit produce summery music at the highest quality. On this, their second single, ‘Mallory’, things start off promisingly well. Bristling guitar and drums collide with energy to welcome in the sweet adept melodies that work wonders in warming the current winter cockles. Unlike first single ‘You’re So Cool’ which caused a flurry of excited music fans to shift the records off the shelves before they had even been taken out of packets, this provides a heavier backdrop to the great double-tracked female vocals. What could then end up being a rather hum drum straightforward affair leaves it until half way through to have a complex guitar riff and added reverb kick in which lifts the single and makes it a worthwhile listen. The harmonies are really the star of the show here matching Belle and Sebastian at their best. With support slots lined up with the Drums and a whole host of tour dates in the bag, they seem destined to make it on a bigger scale in 2012. This is a splendid second single that is pleasant to listen to and not in a passive, rather twee way. Good work.
Friendly Fires caught the attention of the nation’s ears from the very beginning of their career, and had everybody jumping up and down. Now they’re back with second album Pala, and have just hit us with their latest single ‘Hurting’. In spite of a slight euro-trash 90s dance feel to the chorus, guaranteed to stick in your head for at least a day or two, this song holds a fair amount of potential. An incredibly catchy synth opening melody is followed by balanced crescendos, topped up with a hint of Scissor Sisters. Steady rhythm, clean sound, bursts of short happy notes – ‘Hurting’ has something for all of you out there dying for a Saturday night boogie. Combining a real nice mixture of elements, this tune is one well worth checking out, especially for those who had started demonstrating a bit of scepticism towards the first taste of their later work. Though it may not be another ‘Paris’, it’s definitely good enough for London.
Rowdy rock and roll done properly is one of the most gratifying types of music to let any pent up angst be released into the wider world. So with new London three-piece Shuga, you can understand why they’ve gone down this route. They are a band that profess they are sick of the generic chart music that plagues our radio waves and aim to shake things up with their ‘lovesick, grunge-slathered, punked-up pop songs’. Formed less than six months ago, they are still whippersnappers in musical terms and have only played a handful of gigs, so it would be only fair to judge their debut single appropriately. For all their influences from Patti Smith and Ike and Tina, their sound is one of a riffed up, raw and lo-fi girl band. Unfortunately the lackadaisical approach and slurred delivery is nothing special here and despite the good backing and punk ethos all present and correct here, their first two minute cut is over before you’ve even had time to take it in. There is early proof that they could potentially blossom into something better in the future, but on the basis of this debut single, they seem misguided, rushed and hesitant making for a rather difficult listen.
Okay, any single piece of music that comes with the selling point that it offers ‘infectious moments of booty shakin’ should honestly come with a health warning. It is hard not to go into a review like this without a bias and vitriolic slant against the artist before the record is even spun. So, what’s the appeal for MNEK, a 16 year old singer, songwriter and hotly tipped producer from London? Well we know that at such a young age he has risen to the top of the game through garnering much attention and airplay for his various remixes and production credits on tracks for Tinie Tempah and Frankmusik, among a host of other significant new artists. Offering big beats and melodies, you can take this single two ways. If you put yourself in the shoes of a radio 1 listener who sees the Black Eyed Peas as ‘ground-breaking’ then this is right up your street. It has a melody that would set any dance floor alight, the beats are consistently grandiose and the lyrics are as straightforward as any Dappy song. Unfortunately only a certain amount of music critics can fall into this category and without a snobbish sense of self-righteousness this is frankly poor.
Domino Records has a significant track record of bringing superbly creative individuals and artistic talents from the underground into the mainstream and we will always love them for that. Without their significant contribution to finding these artists we wouldn’t have come across the likes of the Dirty Projectors, Real Estate and Twin Sister, among others. The record company thrive on that sense of individuality and eccentricities abound. So it is with disappointment that in reviewing this new band all of what has made the aforementioned artists so special before them is lacking or on a different continent. It starts positively engulfed in a dream like fuzz and drone with a crisp and otherworldly melody easing by in the background. Lead singer Suzanne Aztoria’s lush vocals are top drawer and imbued with intimacy and warmth, but there is still something missing. It is more a case of waiting for it to hit its stride which it never does, which makes it all the more forgettable. Second cut ‘Engelhardt’s Arizona’ is even more spacious and unpredictable but doesn’t have the same sincerity and lacks any real cohesion. Domino may have a track record, but everyone’s human and this is a forgettable misstep into the unknown. Mediocre.
I’m not one to advocate crime, but if you haven’t got a decent audio set-up then what you need to do is break into your nearest top-end hifi store, create a noise making monster system, pop ‘Black Kisses’ on, stand at optimal range from the speaker stacks and close your eyes. Do that and you won’t just be moved, you’ll wake up on goddamn Jupiter. With shit in your pants and tears in your eyes. Kick To Kill have re-emerged following a stabbing incident involving front man Dave Cook in 2009 after the band’s single release of ‘Cut Me’. I won’t make any comments about it being a PR stunt gone wrong, because these guys are good. ‘Mushroom Cloud’ is the second song on the single and whilst not being as strong as ‘Black Kisses’, it demonstrates another side to Kick To Kill, showing they have a straight ahead rock string to their bow. Dave Cook sounds like E from Eels, though…which is a little distracting. Both songs are being released on limited edition vinyl as well as CD and via download and comes very highly recommended. Just don’t drop me in it with the boys in blue when they find you re-arranging speakers in Bose.
Maybe Cage The Elephant were found wandering aimlessly on a beach in Kent one day not knowing anything other than the fact that they can play mid-nineties era alt-rock. Maybe they stepped into a time machine in 1998 and got pooped out the other side in 2006. Maybe they’re 55% sponge and have spent 1991 onwards locked in a room with Nirvana, Mudhoney, The Pixies and The Butthole Surfers played continuously through headphones superglued to their heads, only to be sent out into the world to become the self-styled saviours of ‘slacker funk-punk’. Whatever it is, they release ‘Aberdeen’ from ‘Thank You, Happy Birthday’ as their third single. Aberdeen, Washington obviously being the birthplace of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana and grunge. The video that accompanies the song says that it’s about the outsider being misunderstood by society. It’s a good video and is probably the reason why a lot of people would recommend the song to their friends. The song will please current fans but isn’t as commercial as previous single ‘shake me down’, which can’t be a bad thing as that song did grate a little, didn’t it? Awww, come on!
To say this 23-year-old singer-songwriter James Bennett has been hyped would be an understatement in itself. Ever since the young man came onto the scene critics have been hailing him as something of a revolutionary and the blogs, forums and newspaper columns have been filled to the raft. So it is with baited breath after all the discussion that his debut single ‘Black Cloud’ finally arrives on release and is something of a surprise package. Whereas most artists relocate from remote towns and countryside to London, it is refreshing to find out James went against the grain and moved from the capital to the Lake District. This is the location where this project all unravelled. Thankfully the hype is more than deserved, as this is as complex a piece of beautiful pop as you’ll hear all year. Textural layers, atmospheric bursts and ultimately a rather splendid melody unravel over the top of all this. Production is immaculate and Bennett has an intrinsic song writing prowess that has been lauded throughout. It may not be the earth shattering debut some have craved for, but as debut singles go, it doesn’t exactly play it safe. Satisfyingly good!
