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Deerhunter – Revival
4AD
Man, you just have to love the pure schizophrenic weirdness of Deerhunter. One minute they’re making 1950’s slow dances, then it’s suddenly they pop-up with some strange krautrock jam that sounds like some long-lost Kluster song, and now they’re peddling some washed-out bit of 60’s psychedelia that sounds like Brian Wilson jamming one of Trail of Dead’s poppier songs. Honestly, I can’t keep up.
They’re always good though. So at least there’s one thing constant. 4/5
DH
The Spring Offensive – The First Of Many Dreams About Monsters
Unsigned
People always try and liken new bands to established greats, but whether or not Spring Offensive are like Radiohead or Arcade Fire matters not, this single is incredible – and massively ambitious for a band so young. A 13 minute slab of heartfelt indie rock with soaring riffs and perplexing lyrics, the journey it takes you on is an epic one.
There is a haunting bridge before a pace change – but for me it’s the first part of the song which contains the brilliance: catchy, energetic, passionate and spine-tingling. So in that respect, you could say that Spring Offensive they were Radiohead-esque. They write good songs. 4/5
LC
If you like this one, you can download it here.
The Strange Death of Liberal England – Rising Sea
Republic of Music
After all the minimalist indie-pop I've been assigned to review recently, I'd almost forgotten what an epic rock song sounded like, so TSDOLE's new track came as a slight shock. However, once I got over the relentlessly pounding drums, blaring guitars and haunting Arcade Fire-esque chiming of glockenspiels, I found myself getting into it, and I imagine in a dimly-lit gig, surrounded by beer-toting, head-thrashing fans, they'd be even better.
Background music it ain't - this song grabs hold of you and won’t let go. 3.5/5
SK
Flash Fiktion – Leni
The first twenty seconds of Flash Fiktion's ‘Leni’ is enticing; it's punchy, a little dirty and raring to go. But after that it trails into a mix and match, maybe even a pick 'n' mix of popular bands today.
This is Metric's ‘Monster Hospital’ mixed with Late of the Pier's 'Heartbeat', and sadly it doesn’t add anything. They might as well copy the whole Adam Ant/ Empire of the Sun white stripe across the face thing too, oh wait…they have. 3/5
LD
Siriusmo – The Plasterer Of Love
Monkeytown Records
The German producer's Plasterer of Love is an easy-listening track with his trademark electro/80's sound. Plasterer of Love, which has been compared to his previous Nights Off, is relaxed and chilled yet, has an up-beat tempo with sunny pop chords.
Siriusmo's latest offering features on his latest EP of the same name and is the producer's first release since his last EP Uninvited Guest. Although not my usual taste of music, Plasterer of Love is surprisingly OK. 3/5
AA
Hurts – Wonderful Life
RCA
When I first listened to this, I could picture them both walking down a foggy street in a long mackintosh, lip syncing into the camera. The song’s subtly haunting, the gentle vocal is carried along nicely by the synths and kick drum beats.
The New Romantic influence is all too obvious however, and I do feel like I've heard this before, even though I can't put my finger on the particular song it reminds me of, or if I've missed something and it is a cover? I’m still trying understand exactly why they made it to the BBC's "Sound of 2010" shortlist...2.5/5
CW
Inna – Amazing
Roton
Inna is a Romanian dance singer who has been taking the European music charts by storm recently hitting number one in 15 countries. The singer, who is just at ease posing in a bikini than pumping tunes in the club brings her next single 'Amazing' to the UK in an attempt to get us Brits dancing to that Euro beat.
Combining Spanish acoustic guitars with bubbling and chirpy beats, this one probably sounds great in the sun, we'll have to leave it in Europe then. 2/5
TT
The Pretty Reckless – Miss Nothing
I don’t know if seeing lead singer Taylor Momsen crawl around like a demonic mistress with a serious dislike for food and a heavy hand for water/vodka in the video to ‘Miss Nothing’, is a good or a bad thing? As I’ve just found out via wiki that she’s only 17, I’m going to say bad just to sound a little less like some sort of pervy chauvinist.
I do know for certain however that the actual song is a bit of a mess. It starts off with a rather inviting, pop grunge intro, swiftly leading into a bridge that sounds more in keeping with a Cascada dance number and then it stumbles into a bit of pop punk and finally into a strange mix of all three. 2/5
JG
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