There's a healthy amount of bile exploding out of the Spoonfed offices today, judging by this week's new single reviews. This could be related to the four-day week pinch... Still, it's not our fault if the releases are cack.
*SINGLE OF THE WEEK*
Darwin Deez – Radar Detector
Lucky Number Music
Call me shallow, but these days – especially with Spring in the air – all I hope for from a new single is something I can happily skip down the street to without having to re-shuffle my iPod out of sheer boredom halfway through.
Indie newcomer Darwin Deez' track delivers everything you need to get you in the mood on your post-work walk to the beer garden – quirky lyrics, effervescent pop melody and minimalist electro beat. It might not be rocket science, but it's certainly pure Summery enjoyment. 4/5
SK
Mademoiselle Caro and Franck Garcia – Soldiers
Buzzin’ Fly
Signed to Buzzin’ Fly? Tick. Remixes by Ben Watt and The Revenge? Tick. Tick. I could be setting myself up for a fall here but thankfully I'm not. Caro & Garcia's latest single shares a lot of similarities to their last creep-up hit 'Dead Souls', with a stripped-back synth-pop sound and melancholic vocals.
Ben Watt's nine minute remix ups the tempo and focuses on the harmonies while The Revenge's trademark disco influence swaps the vocals for driving drums and a killer bassline. Did I mention the acoustic version's also a ripper? 4/5
EM
Django Django – Wor
Unsigned
Stompy, tribal sounds, smouldering drums (if drums can smoulder?), all thrown together with slightly electronic-tinged folk. It really is beyond my limited musical capabilities to pin down what Django Django are about. But who cares, it's good.
That said, things get off to a bit of a dubious start – the opening foreboding tremors sound faintly like the prelude to a Spaghetti Western shoot-off. However, expert clapping, cow bells and a fabulous array of percussion thankfully counter any hint of John Wayne. Weird, ominous and totally O.T.T. 3.5/5
LR
Fionn Regan – Catacombs
Heavenly Recordings/Universal Ireland
As Alanis Morissette said of her hit-cum-lexical-failure 'Ironic', songs aren't meant to be taken literally. And it's a damn good thing too because this cheery number may or may not be about a dude ducking out of a fight, or indeed some kind of upbeat domestic abuse.
Whatever the underlying message, it's a bright, slightly twangy, country-sounding song that reminds me a bit of Griffin House – make of that what you will. 3.5/5
NK
Joy Formidable – Popinjay
Black Bell Recordings
The ‘hotly-tipped Welsh upstarts’ (shudder) are back! Hooray…oh. Whilst the gentle tugging sensation at my heartstrings – not to mention the aggressive burning sensation in my loins – stirred by the unfeasibly lovely Ritzy Bryan precludes me from being my usual jocularly spiteful self, I must say this one falls rather flat.
Smoother and more clinical, perhaps, but ultimately harder work than before – this lacks the visceral edge which made last year’s self-released debut ‘A Balloon Called Moaning’ so shiveringly electric. That said, extending the explosive middle-eight could still’ve made it a winner, so all hope is not lost. 2.5/5
JL
We Are Scientists – Rules Don't Stop
Virgin
Ok, so we get it. Rules don’t stop you. You’re really cool and that's because you don’t follow rules. God I wish I was as cool as these guys. But I’m not, so I’ll just have to manage.
So unless you’re a fifteen year-old who doesn’t really feel like following your parents' rules, then this song is pretty much lame. Apart from the drummer in the video that is. He looks mighty fine. 2/5
SC
Trentemøller – Sycamore Feeling
A:larm Music
Unbeknownst to most, Trentemøller is massively into lepidoptery, the study of moths. With this single he's showing empathy for Acronicta aceris, the sycamore moth of the Noctuidae family. Nobody knows for sure what a sycamore moth feels but we do know they're attracted to light and sugar because, like Trentemøller, they're scared of the dark and have a serious sweet tooth.
The solution, therefore, is simple. If we turn all the lights out and chuck him a sherbet fountain maybe he'll stop bugging us all with this boring, self-indulgent drivel. 2/5
TO
Flyleaf – Missing
A&M/Octone
In order to compose constructive criticism towards Flyleaf, I tried to decide who ’Missing’ was aimed at. It will more than likely gain a mediocre level of airplay, purely on the basis that it doesn’t overly offend any particular demographic. I’m just truly lost as to which it will particularly appeal to.
Right off the bat ‘Missing’ doesn’t bode well. Aside from the pop-rock hooks, the opening lyric delivered in a Kelly Clarkson squeal – “I saw the Queen, swam out below her star on sea beneath” – just doesn’t make sense, does it? Frankly, by the start of the next line I couldn't really care less. 1/5
RM
Joshua Radin – I'd Rather Be With You
Warner
Some songs just make me want to cry – not because I'm overcome with emotion, but because I'm filled with a red-hot rage that singes the ends of my fingers and burns my eye sockets raw. It takes just four seconds of 'I'd Rather Be With You' for this indescribable anger to course like venom through my veins. It never departs.
In the video Josh perches on a pier, perhaps in a nod to Dawson's Creek. If so, he's ransacking my childhood, the bland, disgusting little twerp. 0/5
TJ
So, Trentemøller is likely to have you '(Sycamore) Feeling' bored, whilst Flyleaf's lyrical acumen is 'Missing', and we'd rather NOT be with Joshua Radin. On the other side of the coin, Messrs. Deez, Caro and Django: we salute you. Until next week...
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