You know those annoying people who hang around at the back of gigs banging on about how there hasn't been a decent band since Medium Medium, or how music from Atlanta is 1000 times better than stuff from Manchester at the moment? Yep, we're those guys....
Pains Of Being Pure At Heart – Say No To Love
Fortuna Pop
'Say No to Love' has that kind of magical melancholy that's reminiscent of early Stone Roses tracks like 'Going Down' or maybe 'Mersey Paradise'. Of course The Pains of being Pure at Heart have one major advantage – their singer isn't Ian Brown.
With barely audible, gently breathy vocals, this is a rushing weir of trebly delicacy, lightly coated in stardust sadness. Utterly captivating. 4.5/5
TJ
HEALTH – USA Boys
City Slang
Can Health even make bad songs? After their last couple of releases, I’m starting to seriously doubt it.
Recorded round Trent Reznor’s house (as you do), 'USA Boys' is a much more stripped down affair when you compare it to HEALTH’s other works, but with its minimal composition, pounding drums, simple synth line and hazy, psychedelic vocals, it’s still 99% better than most over stuff released this year. Think Ratatat meeting a way more menacing version of Fuck Buttons. 4/5
DH
Oh Ruin – The Pillow Where Your Head Does Lay
Unsigned
Flickery, folksy guitar and rumbling drums accompany singer-songwriter Oh Ruin's laconically rolling voice. This sentimental, rough around the edges track has some pretty dire lyrics: “The moonlight that shines over the water, the water that cleanses your hair, the hair that falls across the pillow, the pillow where your head does lay...” blah blah.
Stomping deep blues dips, an Irish jig bit and flourishes of strings redeem things slightly. Plus he made the guitar he plays on, so a brownie point for that. 2.75/5
LR
!!! – AM FM/ The Hammer
Warp Records
Brooklyn dance/punk legends !!! (Chk Chk Chk? Dm Dm Dm? Whatever you please, really) are renowned for their insane live sets, a fact which definitely comes out in these jointly-released tracks from their forthcoming album.
The infectious Latino-style beats topped by low, almost purring vocals would no doubt go off at 3pm on day two of a festival bender, the crowds twitching involuntarily with plastic cups of lager in hand. In a non-live setting they won't set the world on fire, but as a cool afternoon barbecue groove, you could do a lot worse. 3.5/5
SK
Scissor Sisters – Fire With Fire
Polydor/Universal Records
Well, this is nondescript. When I was 17 these Scissor Sisters were the sound track to much bunking off and abusing of the 'free period'. They revelled in their own shit-hot status for a while but they've since petered out and suffered the same fate as The Darkness and other camp disco pop of the day and have become no more than a half-decent TOTP2 segment.
This track is an example of why. Rhyming fire with desire? Over and over again? Really? 3/5
NK
Tender Trap – Do You Want A Boyfriend
Slumberland Records
Now rid of any electronic arrangements or male members, Tender Trap have become your typical alt-pop girl band in the sensitive twee-pop tradition of Sarah Records (to which they're intimately connected).
The epitome of all that, their new single 'Do You Want A Boyfriend' doesn't go short on retro female vocals, '60s drums cadence (are we hearing Moe Tucker?), naive pop hooks and girlish banter. But this innocent and true-to-heart tune ultimately gets a bit too goofy and past-oriented to grab you on the long run. 2.5/5
TC
Feeder – Call Out
Big Teeth Music
Well, Feeder has birthed another inane song. Less than a minute in, I'm already bored and the remaining two and a half minutes are merely cruel loops of what's just happened.
It's nondescript, and the lyrics are about as lame as a one-legged dog. “If you want to hear this song...You just call out our name”: therefore let them now be called Band-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Dare to utter 'Feeder' and beware, you might just be subjected to some seriously flaccid rock. 1.5/5
SC
Katy Perry ft Snoop Dogg – California Girls
Capital Records
Cynical hook-based pop from Katy Perry with rent-a-cameo from Snoop. She bangs on and on about how great California girls are, then Snoop raps for a bit about banging California girls, and how brilliant that is, then Katy comes back in to remind you California girls are the best then fade out with Snoop wishing they could all be California girls.
I've been to California and let me tell you all you need to know about California girls...they're easy and they tend to have annoying voices. 1/5
TO
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