For the briefest of moments I wondered whether ‘Alright’ the new single from The Subways might just be a cover of the old Cast number from John Power’s old scouse pop/rock outfit.
It’s not.
It is however a perfectly respectable slab of skinny legged indie kid contemporary pop rock full of bristling gnashing guitars, drums and gorgeously cooed backing vocals. Perfectly radio friendly and oh so very now, and you know something…there’s ‘nowt wrong with that. It also has one of those hicuppy style endings that John Peel used to love (although I don’t think this lot would have found themselves quite at home on his show). Its out on June 16th
Next up is The Game or probably as he would prefer to be known the motherf*ckin’ Game with his single ‘Big Dreams’ available on digital release on April 28th . Potty mouth!(worry not, Mary Whitehouse fans radio edits are available). There’s a vaguely interesting musical backdrop on this one (think Casio brass), lyrically The Game shows us nothing new and my interest wanes prior to the conclusion of the track. Bit of a yawner this one.
Daniel Merriweather meanwhile shows up with his new single ‘Chainsaw’, very well dressed funky house that will no doubt keep ‘posh clubbers’ happy. It comes with a heavy remix pack with recuts courtesy of Wookie so it’s very slick. A little bit wine bar for my tastes but I suspect this will appeal to some. The Plastic Little mix adds a bit of chunk to the bottom end and a touch of filter which does help. While Ear Dis lands on the track like a ton of bricks and makes the track at least a little more interesting. Nice title though.
Mattafix is up next, odd name for an outfit. Reminds me of something you might buy from a DIY store, you know…like glue?
Anyway, never mind such trivialities, the single ‘Things Have Changed’ is quite tasty. Odd squalls of jittery synths mixed with firm but fair beats and a rather pleasing soulful yet melancholy vocal. This song has a serious hook to it and when you add to that the stop start string section that creeps out of your speakers this one has sleeper hit written all over it. This one is out on the 9th June.
Julian Velard next with his single Jimmy Dean and Steve McQueen out on June 16th, sadly I can’t endorse this. it’s sappy twee sub par “I wish I was Billy Joel” nonsense with it’s jaunty piano bashing. Punk happened so we would never have to endure crap like this I’m afraid. I feel like I need a shower just because I listened to it. Horrific. Truly horrific.
Finally we close with Jamie Lidell’s ‘Another Day’, the man has all the right credentials. At times you wonder if his vocal chords were cloned from Stevie Wonder’s stem cells, I mean the guy has an effortless soul voice and the company he keeps on record is as always first rate musically . On paper this should be a killer single but for some reason it just seems to be lacking that certain ‘oomph’. It has to be admired for it’s finely crafted sensibilities but alas the lack of spark just can’t be ignored. Sadly average.
Have an ace weekend, folks!
