22 May 2006

Eyeballkid's Single of the Week

The Fiery Furnaces - Benton Harbour Blues
(Rough Trade)
Continuing to defy expectations, the Friedberger siblings ditch the demented carnival blues in favour of achingly melancholic pop music. With the bizarre meanderings of their previous songs in mind, the stability and order of Benton Harbour Blues is astonishing, even more so when you consider the contrast with the helpless depression of the lyrics. "Of my past only the sadness stays", sings Eleanor, while her brother tries to cheer her up by piping out chirpy melodies from his organ. But as so often with depression, happy things only seem to add to bitter beauty to the pain.

Primal Scream - Country Girl (Columbia)
The Scream return and instead of techno punk diatribes on the military industrial complex, they've cast aside their woes and gone back to the devil-may-care rock'n'roll excess of the Give Out But Don't Give Up days. However instead of the expected Stones tribute act, Country Girl actually sounds like a stick-thin version of Fat Bottomed Girls. It's even got a banjo solo. Sounds nutty but it works for the simple reason that being a swaggering, rock front man is what Bobby Gillespie is all about. If they'd put lyrics about football to this, it'd be a smash.

The Ordinary Boys with Lady Sovereign - 9 to 5
(B-Unique)
Give them the gift of lyrical dexterity and suddenly The Ordinary Boys sound like the band they think they are. Of course this gift comes in the small package form of Lady Sovereign, whose witty rhymes on the slog of being a musician are the kind of lazy, can't be bothered routine you'd expect from a stroppy teen with a big record contract. Picking up from the good lady's original, The Ordinary Boys give this a decent ska workout, but every time Sov's version cuts back in, you are reminded where the talent lies.

Louie - Dead Man (Fallout)
Louie's previous single Trees from last year would have won Eyeballkid's Graham Coxon Award for Finest Piece of Bubblegum Punk Rock, if Coxon would put his miserable hands into his pockets and sponsor us. So how does their follow up fare? Despite plenty of screeching and manic guitars, Dead Man has lost much of Trees' insane edge. In fact their yelpy punk thing looks like a ruse to cover up the fact that this is actually quite a nice song, complete with handclaps and sweet rock melodies.

Branded - Tits Out for the Lads (Power Station)
Much like the Eurovision Song Contest, football's quad-annual World Cup tends to be ruined by the songs. This year is no exception and in fact has perhaps the worst selection of Eng-er-land chanting nonsense ever to afflict the airwaves. When an established band like Embrace are finding themselves outclassed by a bunch of builders and a cover of Walk Like an Egyptian, you know times are hard. Still, all of the above abominations look like the Anfield Rap compared to this effort from Branded, a self-styled Yorkshire babe. The title says it all - screw any subtly, just give the lads what they want. All that's left for me to say is that she sounds like Bonnie Tyler, so you're left imaging the Welsh warbler wobbling her breasts for the sake of football. And that's just wrong.


words: Colm Larkin