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Shiny Toy Guns - Rainy Monday Weird one, this. Can't quite put my finger on what it is but I've got the strangest sense of deja vu listening to this song. Like it's a long-forgotten favourite but brand new at the same time. Weird also, cos it's so not the kind of thing I would normally listen to voluntarily (tho I'm not sure that our beloved editor holding my cat to ransom actually counts as listening voluntarily...), sounds like it could be snow patrol or something of that ilk, but I really like it. Starts off simply enough, barely accompanied, clear as a bell vocals, followed by layer upon layer of vince clarkesque keyboards, creating a huge swathe of pure, perfect pop. A song to lose yourself in. Catch em at Leeds and Reading. Kaiser chiefs - The Angry Mob Ah, those cheeky northern scamps are back with, in my view, their best work since 'every day I love you less and less'. No idea what it's about, but who cares when it sounds as good as this? Not me, baby! As we've come to expect, this track is typically anthemic, but Angry Mob is much more darkly brooding than anything off the previous album. Plus they've cleverly deviated from the usual verse-chorus-verse format, instead letting the song build up like a pressure cooker, exploding into a menacing chanted finale. And then, as if the sonic smack in the mouth wasn't enough, the cd's got a pic of Gnasher from the Beano on it! Great stuff. Rosemary - Benjamin's Ego This is making me want to chop my ears off. But I'm forcing myself to leave it on to give it a fair hearing, painful tho it undoubtedly is. I mean, it's not as if the music's crap, it's not, kind of a cross between The Levs n gypsy-punks Gogol Bordello (who I love, despite them whoring themselves to Madonna at live 8),if they'd shagged in the 60's. It's just the singer's voice, dunno what it is about it but it's grating on my last fuckin nerve n I can't bear it any more. GET IT OFF!! Ooh, that's better. Bit bonkers I know, I can't stand to hear another second of it but I'm recommending it to you, dear reader, cos I actually think it's just me bein weird about the vocals n not that it's a crap song. If I could just get rid of that fingernails-on-a-blackboard feeling I think I'd love it! Jacknife Lee - Making Me Money Loving this already, before I've even heard a single note! Reading the press crap that accompanies promo stuff, Jacknife Lee says he doesn't wanna promote himself in any way, has never been impressed by a press release and why don't I just listen n either like it, or not? So far, so impressed. Here goes.... Oooh, this is really rather good! Again, not really my kinda thing, sounds like something you'd get 300 ravers, E'd up to the eyeballs, shaking their glowsticks at in the middle of an irate farmer's field. It's funky, it's punky n just the sort of thing to put on when you come in pissed from the pub at half twelve n don't wanna go to bed. Bloom - Shoulder to cry on Oh, thank fuck. My inner bitch was getting a bit scared there, as I seemed to be liking every cd I pulled outta the hat! This, however, is where the niceness stops. oh, but now I've gone and read their press release and I see it's their debut single so it'd be mean of me to slag it off. fuck it, it says here that their music combines the world weariness of Pearl Jam (Ha!) and the pop nous of U2. As. fuckin. if. In actual fact it combines the world weariness of McFly and the pop nous of Michael Bolton. And the voice, come to that. Apparently the release date is being brought forward due to radio interest. That'd be Dad Fm then? Furyon - 32 hours (ep) If you like Deep Purple/Black Sabbath/Any other 70's rock band with a colour in their name, you'll love Furyon. They Obey (I think, can't make it out properly) - 6 track ep No info with this at all, so I guess we'll just have to feel our way, but even without pressing play I can tell exactly what it's gonna sound like. With titles like 'thoughts convey', 'make my way back home', 'this love will be the death of us', 'armour', 'I'll be with you' and 'my own life story', you can bet yr ass it's gonna be all acoustic, melodic, angsty, please-don't-leave-me lyrics. And whaddya know?! Music to break up to... Four by Four - Alan MX/The Wookies/Ben Marwood/Heartwear Process (split 7") Samey, guitar-based fluffiness, which, if the jack johnsons/james Blunts/ of this world are your bag, you'll love. I don't. And then we get to Heartwear Process, by far the worst named band of the piece, but, miraculously, the best sounding! This is 'A musical adaptation of the Nabokov classic 'Lolita'', which surely must score points for sheer ambition if nothing else. This is really interesting, intense and sexy as hell, citing the God that is Nick Cave as a comparison, which I'm not entirely convinced about, but nevertheless if you like that kinda thing then I'd definitely give them a listen or two, definitely a grower. One thing that really pissed me off about this cd tho; either Ben or Jay at Broken Tail records seem to think it's funny to make disparaging comments about gypsies and referrring to them as 'pikeys'. Not yr cleverest idea, boys. Penny Racers Last Journey Apparently, Jimi Hendrix, Blur, Manics and The Who are their influences and this band sound like they have indeed ingested the last four decades and puked up the worst bits of all of em. Bloody horrible. Fi Beckett
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