28 Nov 2005

Eyeballkid's Single of the Week

Sigur Ros 'Hoppipolla' (EMI)
This week's kudos, fawning and general pouring forth of the Eyeballkid love goes to the Icelandic experimentalists whose latest album, Takk, shows a return to convention. That is, if you consider singing in Icelandic as opposed to a self-created language conventional. "Hoppipolla" translates as "jumping in puddles" but plays as soaring over landscapes - it is equal parts transcendental and euphoric. From a simple piano track to swelling strings and brass, there is no hyperbole that will capture the beautifully expansive landscape held in these all too short four minutes, as this is one journey you'll wish never ends. (NM)

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah 'Is This Love?' (Wichita)
No point in telling those readers who are internet savvy that this is good, since the rapid rise to public consciousness of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah has been credited to bloggers and users of myspace.com. Well the last big push was the Arctic Monkeys whose single we still can't shift from our heads so lets not be sniffy. Is This Love? is a brash, cocky and reassuredly self-confident little number that has its charms but lead singer Alec Ounsworth's voice quivers just this side of irritating. Still, the indie roots of the Brooklyn-based five piece suggest that the kids are giving them the thumbs up, so to produce two fingers on the basis of a voice that might grow on us, could involve in the loss of this particular round of paper-scissors-stone. Best two out of three? (NM)

Louie 'Trees' (Loaded Dice)
If Animal from The Muppets was the lead singer of a rock band rather than the drummer in Dr Teeth's psychedelic jazz outfit, this is the kind of record he might have made. Unrelenting guitars, shouty vocals and a growling voice going "la la la la la la" - you can just picture the purple fur flying as stage-dives into the crowd. So hats off to Louie whose debut single is a fine piece of bubblegum thrash worthy of one of the greatest drummers ever. (CL)

Cut Copy 'Going Nowhere' (Modular)
Perhaps the coolest thing to come out of Australia since, well, Kylie actually - it's been a while - Cut Copy are Melbourne's answer to Ladytron, but with boys and maybe more disco magic. There's something a little stinky about this though, the chorus sounds remarkably like a "reinterpretation" of a song called Nowhere by Northern Irish band Therapy? (Yes, they of the questionable question mark? As a digression, was it them who started the whole teenagers making statements like they're asking a question? Like on Friends? If so, damn them to hell?) If so, perhaps Cut Copy's record company are part of the Therapy? label (A&M at the time of the album Troublegum from which Nowhere is taken) and it's a case of Peter-Paul wealth redistribution. (Amusingly, Therapy? are still in existence and their website is called www.therapyquestionmark.co.uk. And yes, both of those statements are amusing.) In summary: this is very good. If maybe not 100% due to Cut Copy. (NM)

Babyshambles 'Albion' (Rough Trade)
The latest offering from the walking pharmacy and his merry men is a song built for the stadium. It remains to be seen whether Doherty & Co will see a stadium again after his rather shambolic appearance at Live 8, indeed whether the hype will be realised at all. Generally lukewarm album reviews may see history concluding that, without Carl Barat to harness some of the self-indulgence and chaos, this is all too much squandering of proclaimed genius that has yet to really present itself. Albion is suitably melodic and pleasant but is hampered by a severe case of lyrical flatulence. Yet more hot air then from the band who may be mostly remembered for the last two syllables of their name. (NM)

21 Nov 2005

Eyeballkid's Single of the Week

The Decemberists 'Sixteen Military Wives' (Rough Trade)
"What's that rumble coming from your bellies?" you might well ask the rather surreal Decemberists, whereupon they would be obliged to confess to a severe case of indigestion, as you might expect after swallowing The Complete Beatles boxset whole without stopping to catch your breath. But musical kleptomania being part and parcel of the age that we find ourselves in, we get over this minor fact and rejoice in the trumpets, mandolins, concertinas and general Sergeant Pepper-esque symphony of uplifting pop loveliness.

Coldcut 'Everything Is Under Control'
(Ninja Tune)
A return to form for the Coldcut boys Jonathon Moore and Matt Black - as if they needed to give us another Reason to like them. (Did you see what I did there? Possibly not unless you're a music software nerd, not to worry.) Anyway, this features guest vocals from everyone's
favourite Blues Explosion, Jon Spencer himself, and rapper Mike Ladd. It's about the big issues such as reality TV, government brutality, globalisation and the like. And it's accompanied by a graphically enhanced video, which is equal parts style and substance.

The Spinto Band 'Brown Boxes' (Radiate)
Love it. That's an order, not a request. The Spinto Band are a seven member group of fun loving troubadours, the bastard sons of Pavement and the Beach Boys. Brown Boxes is a quirky little number dedicated to moving out on your beloved. B-side Mountains is even more endearing and the harmonies give it a hook that will embed itself in your skull and cling on for dear life, ignoring even the use of best Irish creamery butter in an attempt to loosen its hold. Again about leaving your lover. Simon and Garfunkel a key lyrical inspiration perhaps? Answers on a postcard.

The Far Cries 'Stepping' (Play It Again 7)
Only the second release on new UK label Play It Again 7 (their releases only come on 7" vinyl -fact ed.), The Far Cries are Martin Bjorck and Liz Holdforth. Edgy, acute, urban and featuring belter vocals from Holdforth, there's more than a stripped-down similarity on the lead track on this single to The Kills, though with more emphasis on melody and less on gut-wrenching rawness, which you can class as either pro or con depending on where you stand on guts. B-side Cold Love should have perhaps dithered a little longer on the studio floor before being unleashed on the world, smelling as it does strongly of a session track. Promising stuff, nonetheless, from a band and a label to keep an eye on.

Stereophonics 'Rewind' (V2)
Just when you thought you had life figured out, had got your head round such key issues as quantum physics and what the blue box in Mulholland Drive really symbolises, something happens to make you question your existence and all that you've taken for granted. In our case it's the release by the Stereophonics of the SECOND GOOD SINGLE IN A ROW. Honestly, what is the world coming to? It's a bit U2 on the days when they reel in Bono's ego and sit down to actually write songs. A bit Doves. A bit. . . whisper it. . . good. Enough of this messing now lads.

words: Niamh Murray

14 Nov 2005

Eyeballkid's Single of the Week

Gemma Hayes 'Happy Sad' (Virgin)
Admittedly indulging ourselves in a bit of nationalistic voting in keeping with our Eurovision theme this week (see The Modern, below), Gemma Hayes is the recipient of this week's Blue Peter badge. Less than revolutionary but then as someone once suggested, make love not war, and this well-crafted piece of radio friendly pop is inoffensive in all the right places. Mercury Prize nominee Hayes moved from Tipperary in Ireland to LA to work on her new album 'The Roads Don't Love You' and the sense of place is clear in the West coast bitter sweetness showcased here. (NM)

The Like 'What I Say and What I Mean' (Geffen)
Beware the band that arrives in a perfect package. The Like are a trio of young ladies playing spiky melodious rock music that takes in a variety of past female performers like, Throwing Muses, Juliana Hatfield and Alanis Morissette. Now I've never been one to compare bands on the basis of their sex, but in this case it seems someone has already decided this is how they will sound. Yes, 'someone' does imply that The Like may have less to do with the direction of the music than one might like to suppose. Would I suggest something similar were they not an all-girl band? Certainly -if their male equivalent came with accompanying expensive video, beautifully assembled Flash website, complete with a massive archive of professionally-shot band photos featuring the pretty young things in a variety of attractive poses, I'd suspect excessive record company involvement as well. Still they'd storm to victory if they were on The X-Factor. (CL)

Action Plan 'Stendhal' (Young & Lost Club)
Not every day we receive singles named after novelists (Stendhal was a French writer of the bodice-ripper variety, best known for 'The Red & The Black',a work of ice-cold style in the vein of 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses'.) While it is commendable that the four chaps involved came through their education with more than a rudimentary knowledge of European literature, it is all too obvious that they were hanging out in the chippie smoking fags and drinking Coca Cola when music class was taking place. "Prétentieux, ennuyeux, ordinaire*" are just three adjectives that Stendhal might have used, had he been forced to write about Action Plan. Luckily for him, he's long dead. (NM)
**pretentious, boring, banal / ordinary.

Athlete 'Twenty Four Hours' (Parlophone)
Music for those recovering from triple bypass surgery, Athlete are the very antithesis of raucous. Watch out lads, or you could be the next honoured subjects of an Eyeballkid t-shirt, were it not for the fact that we start to nod off every time their name is mentioned in board meetings. 'Twenty Four Hours' is a plodding little number, which manages to be as offensive in terms of lyrical gaucheness as it musters in pandering to the stadium masses. Funny choice of name for a band that manage to be nothing more or less than pedestrian.

The Modern 'Jane Falls Down' (Mercury)
Oh dear God is it Eurovision season already? Top marks for subject matter - nothing as embarrassing as falling over in public if you're the clutz, nothing as hilarious as witnessing said loss of gravity if you're not. But this is no excuse for this piece of Europop, which surely is the entry from Uzbekistan, despite the borders of Europe (for the purpose of the contest) constantly expanding to include further and further away nations - Nicaragua next year folks? Regardless, there is a limit to how far we can tolerate the borders of good taste being pushed. (NM)

07 Nov 2005

Eyeballkid's Single of the Week

Johnathan Rice 'So Sweet' (One Little Indian)
Rice is a Scottish-American singer-songwriter who can be included under the new acoustic umbrella that also shelters Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes and Willy Mason. What a breath of fresh air then that this single owes as much to New Order and Talk Talk as it does to Dylan. Appearing soon as Roy Orbison in the Johnny Cash biopic 'I Walk The Line' will do Rice's ascending star no harm at all.

The Warlocks 'It's Just Like Surgery'
(Some Friendly)
As age-old seduction techniques go, comparing the love of your intended to being cut open, having someone fumble about in your stomach, perhaps removing a pound or two of flesh, before doing an amateur stitch-up job that leaves you a bikini-disaster zone for the rest of your life might not be guaranteed to be received with warm smiles and open arms. Nonetheless, The Warlocks do mean it as a compliment though, and whereas it might be justifiable to meet this paean by chucking pot plants at lead singer Bobby Hecksher's head, on listening to the wonderfully Jesus & Mary Chain-esque track, it's worth being reminded that there are indeed all sorts of poetry.

Kaiser Chiefs 'Modern Way' (B-Unique)
Much like Violet Beauregarde's pilfered everlasting gobstopper, Kaiser Chiefs' cheeky-chappy collective persona is the gift that keeps on giving, and this is surely the fiftieth or sixtieth single from album 'Employment'. However there's a bit of a fuzzy end of the lollipop experience going on here, as though Violet had to take a break for a cup of tea and left aforementioned gobstopper on Charlie Bucket's handknit jumper for safe-keeping. Easily the weakest single by far, it seems it could be time for Wilson and co. to retire to a studio far from the madding crowd to see if they've got a difficult second album in them.

Humanzi 'Fix The Cracks / Get Your Shit Together' (Fiction)
Dublin's hardest working-class band (after The Commitments, who already claimed that title before it, and indeed Dublin, was fashionable), Humanzi are a bit like The-Stooges-meet-Kings-of-Leon in a battle over a set of GHD hair straighteners. (Hmm, given that a blowdry in a reasonable Dublin hairdressers will set you back at least 25 euro, we're beginning to doubt the working class bit of their press bumpf. Though there is one curly mophead so maybe a discount applies.) Anyway, fine songs from the upstarts are let down by lacklustre production which fails to live up to their reputation as a fine live act.

Tommy Lee 'Good Times' (Steamhammer)
Ah Tommy, how has the world of music been coping without you? Actually, reasonably okay all things considered, but still, there's always more room to rock! But, bizarrely, Lee's solo efforts appear to have pilfered some of Maroon 5's session rejects, if this single is anything to go by. It's a little bit, erm, tame and radio friendly! Never thought we'd be saying this but the Motley Crue badboy antics and questionable musicianship are welcome back, all is forgiven, anything to save us from this particular blasphemy of the bland. On the other hand, his forthcoming reality show 'Tommy Lee Goes to College' may be the media event of the year. Here's hoping.

words: Niamh Murray

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