iconocaust (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} iconocaust) wrote,@ 2007-09-01 03:25:00 |
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Trax
Editors - "An End Has a Beginning" Editors may have set themselves up for a lifetime of being pigeonholed as the "British Interpol," but songs like this belie that comparison. Where Interpol's dreary third album captures all the fun and natural joie de vivre of being stuck on a New York subway at 3 AM with only a schizophrenic bum for company, "End" fizzes with taut, wiry energy, a best-case mashup between "Munich"'s stark edges and the sky-punching, larger-than-life fire of "Bullets". Hardly original, sure, but with music like this, it's hard to argue.
Babyshambles - "Delivery" Midway through shooting another load of grade A horse, Pete Doherty suddenly remembers he's a musician and pulls himself away from the dirty spoons long enough to slap together a self-pitying Kinks pastiche. "Delivery" ensues. Look for the inevitable NME mash note in two week's time -- at this stage, you can practically set your calendars by it.
Albert Hammond, Jr. - "In Transit" "I'm not gonna change 'til I want to," sings The Strokes' curly-haired, terminally uncool rhythm guitarist in this, the latest single off his debut album Yours to Keep. And sure enough, the vast majority of "In Transit" is as lazy and unremarkable as anything in the Strokes back catalogue, utterly predictable right up until the point that the perverse bastard bust out with a cheesy synth-pop chorus straight out of the rump end of the '80s. Well played, but you'll forgive us for withholding points on sheer principle here.
MIA - "Jimmy" For about thirty seconds, this sounds like the Bee Gees hijacking a Hrithik Roshan soundtrack, but the final product quickly emerges as Bollywood by numbers, so ensconced in its source material that it's practically indistinguishable from the original.
The Wombats - "Let's Dance to Joy Division" Well, kids, looks like it's time to run down the British Guitar Band Cliche checklist. Band name beginning in 'The'? Check. Lead singer with thick English accent? Check. Babyshambles guitar? Check. Lyrical content focused on British clubbing-n'-drinking youth culture? Check and check. To be fair, there's one-and-a-third fresh ideas on display here -- though even the Arctic Monkeys would shy away from deploying a semi-ironic children's choir, last seen somewhere in the vicinity of The Darkness -- but a few neat gimmicks can't hide tired songwriting in a field already overrun with amateur axe-slingers. Better luck next time, Wombats.
Gallows - "In the Belly of a Shark" If music were movies, the appropriately-named Gallows would be firmly wedged in between Hostel, Turistas, and Saw somewhere in the danker recesses of your local Blockbuster. As it stands, however, music is music, and so Gallows belong somewhere on the B-side of a lesser Korn single. British music has largely managed to avoid following the ridiculous excess of American nu-metal; why start now?
The Royal We - "All the Rage" Something of an enigma, this. For the first twenty seconds, TRW sound like they might be a serviceable indie-pop confection in the best traditions of Belle and Sebastian. By the one-minute mark, they push Daft Punk levels of repetitive annoyance. At 1:10, they turn into the Raveonettes, and you can't help but feel a pang of regret at the senselessness of it all. Make up your mind, TRW -- we're at war.
Maximo Park - "Girls Who Play Guitars" Yeah, it lifts from The Knack with both hands, and the whole slice-of-British-life theme is getting dangerously close to its sell-by date. Still, it's catchy, and moves so briskly that it's out the door long before its welcome has worn out.
Editors - "An End Has a Beginning" Editors may have set themselves up for a lifetime of being pigeonholed as the "British Interpol," but songs like this belie that comparison. Where Interpol's dreary third album captures all the fun and natural joie de vivre of being stuck on a New York subway at 3 AM with only a schizophrenic bum for company, "End" fizzes with taut, wiry energy, a best-case mashup between "Munich"'s stark edges and the sky-punching, larger-than-life fire of "Bullets". Hardly original, sure, but with music like this, it's hard to argue.
Babyshambles - "Delivery" Midway through shooting another load of grade A horse, Pete Doherty suddenly remembers he's a musician and pulls himself away from the dirty spoons long enough to slap together a self-pitying Kinks pastiche. "Delivery" ensues. Look for the inevitable NME mash note in two week's time -- at this stage, you can practically set your calendars by it.
Albert Hammond, Jr. - "In Transit" "I'm not gonna change 'til I want to," sings The Strokes' curly-haired, terminally uncool rhythm guitarist in this, the latest single off his debut album Yours to Keep. And sure enough, the vast majority of "In Transit" is as lazy and unremarkable as anything in the Strokes back catalogue, utterly predictable right up until the point that the perverse bastard bust out with a cheesy synth-pop chorus straight out of the rump end of the '80s. Well played, but you'll forgive us for withholding points on sheer principle here.
MIA - "Jimmy" For about thirty seconds, this sounds like the Bee Gees hijacking a Hrithik Roshan soundtrack, but the final product quickly emerges as Bollywood by numbers, so ensconced in its source material that it's practically indistinguishable from the original.
The Wombats - "Let's Dance to Joy Division" Well, kids, looks like it's time to run down the British Guitar Band Cliche checklist. Band name beginning in 'The'? Check. Lead singer with thick English accent? Check. Babyshambles guitar? Check. Lyrical content focused on British clubbing-n'-drinking youth culture? Check and check. To be fair, there's one-and-a-third fresh ideas on display here -- though even the Arctic Monkeys would shy away from deploying a semi-ironic children's choir, last seen somewhere in the vicinity of The Darkness -- but a few neat gimmicks can't hide tired songwriting in a field already overrun with amateur axe-slingers. Better luck next time, Wombats.
Gallows - "In the Belly of a Shark" If music were movies, the appropriately-named Gallows would be firmly wedged in between Hostel, Turistas, and Saw somewhere in the danker recesses of your local Blockbuster. As it stands, however, music is music, and so Gallows belong somewhere on the B-side of a lesser Korn single. British music has largely managed to avoid following the ridiculous excess of American nu-metal; why start now?
The Royal We - "All the Rage" Something of an enigma, this. For the first twenty seconds, TRW sound like they might be a serviceable indie-pop confection in the best traditions of Belle and Sebastian. By the one-minute mark, they push Daft Punk levels of repetitive annoyance. At 1:10, they turn into the Raveonettes, and you can't help but feel a pang of regret at the senselessness of it all. Make up your mind, TRW -- we're at war.
Maximo Park - "Girls Who Play Guitars" Yeah, it lifts from The Knack with both hands, and the whole slice-of-British-life theme is getting dangerously close to its sell-by date. Still, it's catchy, and moves so briskly that it's out the door long before its welcome has worn out.
