New Releases - 14th September

New Releases - 14th September

09 September, 2009
by: Music Team

*Single of the Week*
Fuck Buttons – Surf Solar
ATP

They've done it again. The latest release from everybodys favourite knob-fiddlers is nothing short of immense, sounding a bit like OMD and Aphex Twin having a play off. Though I am easily pleased when it comes to electronica, there is no denying that this song has it all: heart hammering drum beats, '80s throwback synths, computer game blips, penguins.

Like a play-dough fun factory, you can put any old crap in one end of Fuck Buttons, turn a few handles and out comes something good enough to eat. 4.5/5
GM

Thom Yorke  feat. Andy Yorke – All For The Best
Shout Factory

After weeks of mediocrity singles-wise, Thom Yorke has saved me from musical abyss.  The charismatic Radiohead frontman has turned Miracle Legion's 'All For The Best', originally a rather staid rock number, into a soul-searching masterpiece of programmatic beats, atmospheric guitars and vocals – backed by brother Andy - that seems to flit from note to note.

The song peaks and troughs beautifully, trailing off with lots of spine-tingling 'oohs'...  and Yorke urging you to 'say you love me' whilst you blissfully surrender. 4.5/5
SL

Get Back Guinozzi! – Low Files Tropical
Fat Cat

Get Back Guinozzi! are a pretty mysterious bunch. An intriguingly fashionable two-piece combining Gallic chic with London smarts, they popped up sometime last year with a glorious slice of folk pop, and then in a puff of green smoke disappeared, almost as if they never existed.

Until now, that is, as they're back with a five-piece band, a new album on Fat Cat and this single that sounds like a hybrid of the B-52s, The Slits and CSS. Man, where have you been all my life? 4/5
DH

Paramore – Ignorance
Fueled By Ramen

With the release of their latest album 'Brand New Eyes' hitting the shops at the end of the month, 'Ignorance' provides a glimpse of the long-awaited follow-up to Paramore's 2007 album success 'Riot'.
 
It still has those appealing emo riffs and solid vocals so it seems very likely that this will be another hit from a solid band. There is also an acoustic version if you like! 4/5
GB

Skunk Anansie – Because of You
One Little Indian

I don't know what to say about this Kerrang-tastic track. My ignorance of the heavier end of the music spectrum renders me tentative; I don't want droves of long leather coat wearers to hunt me down and suck my blood as recompense for wrongly classifying it. Emo? Rock? Who knows.

Objectively, the track is saved from being a dirge by sections of melodic guitar riffs, and Skin's vocals are typically powerful. Oh, and she cries blood in the video. Heavy.  3/5
RC

Hall and Oates – I'll Be Around
Absolute Records

It was all over for Hall and Oates the minute Oates shaved off his Tom Selleck moustache. All their funky 80's 'rock and soul' mojo, demonstrated in such barnstormers as 'I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)' was lost in one deft flick of a razor and now they're left making bland covers of 70's soul classics.

I don't tend to like soul covers, (The Stones' 'Satisfaction' aside) and while you can't deny Daryl Hall still has a killer voice, this schmaltzy Spinners revival sums up why. 3/5
EM

Bombay Bicycle Club – Magnet
Island Records

Bombay Bicycle Club show off a few new tricks here: an ingenious reverberating basso vocal, a menacing bridge section and a couple of stripped down moments where the song glides along with its engines idling. Despite sounding like the bastard progeny of early U2 and Suede, it's still good.

But, and this may just be me, it also seems a little bit wet. There are four of you, for crying out loud! Make some flipping noise. 3/5
JH

Cliff Richard and the Shadows – Singing The Blues
EMI

Walt Disney. Michael Jackson. Cliff Richard. What did they all have in common? They're all creeps. OK, I know it's not cool to talk ill of MJ right now, what with him being hailed as a saint or whatever, but when he was alive would you have invited him into your house to hang-out with your kid brother? No, I didn't think so.

'Singing the Blues' sees Cliff Richard reunites with the Shadows, and it's not bad, sort of reminding me of the Summer Holiday era. But it's not helped that Cliff Richard has the same stage persona of the devil clutching a back of Werther's Originals. Scary… 2.5/5
DH

Florence and the Machine – Drumming Song
Island Records

Listening to a Florence and the Machine song is a bit like watching a Kevin Costner film from the mid-'90s - they are always big, bold and full of bluster, but by the end it all seems a tad overdone, bordering on the pointless and desperately dull.

Quite why the rest of the music press continue to salivate over a posh label-puppet with a penchant for ripping off Kate Bush with a harp is beyond me. "I pray that the water will drown out the din". That's exactly how I felt about Waterworld Flossie, and you. 1.5/5
MF

Steel Panthers - Community Property
Universal/ Republic

A laughably appalling track with next to nothing going for it, just one listen to this depthless and hollow number is enough to cast my verdict.

Musically weak and lyrically feeble, The Steel Panthers try to tread the now muddy ground of The Darkness or Tenacious D with their comedy rock/glam metal, but fall far short. A few quotes are perhaps enough to summarise:-

'When I come home, my dinners made, and the front lawn is mown'
'If suddenly you were a guy, I would be suddenly gay'
'My heart belongs to you, but my cock is community property'

Enough said. 1/5 (1 point because it's actually supposed to be that poor)
SG


God Marcus, don't you know that bashing Florence is like shooting a kitten in the face? Anyway, please join the Facebook Group and come to our party

Music Team