Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Elle Milano - Meanwhile In Hollywood (Single)


Well Elle (You the get the pun surely), Meanwhile in Hollywood is the second single to be taken from the forthcoming album Acres of Dead Space Cadets.

Suck in/blow out the same air in the same town
laments our protangnist Adam M. Crisp in a modern day tale of day dreaming. And yet it seems alluring almost like the young Dylan when he tackled the age issue, Crisp tackles in a stream of consciousness the factor of boredom.
It's also a frantically paced 3 minute pop song, that tackles the age of today. It's socially saying alot with very little.....ending with the message of letting the ones you love go....Sweet.




Songs Revisted - Lenny Bruce By Bob Dylan

Having spent the last week pouring over Dylan for my dissertation i'm going to make this a regular feature on my blog on generally every band.

Lenny Bruce

As much as i smirked upon first hearing Lenny Bruce it's a song that is possibly one of Dylan's better efforts during the 1980's. Emotionally its powerful in delivery and the lyrics are delievered in such a sad way you believe that Dylan is for the first time since "Street Legal" singing from the heart.
Lenny Bruce sums up many of Dylan's early laments about people who generally know the answer is there and yet can't grasp it til its gone, most famously suggested in "Blowin In The Wind". So is "Lenny Bruce" up their with Dylan's very best work? The Simple answer is no but it does need to be relooked at, for Dylan its passionate in a period in which much of his work seems full of empty wind.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Sharp Focus - January's Albums & Singles



So yes, the first month of 2008 is over, a year that promises so much and has delivered tit bits of excitement so far.

Lightspeed Champion was the first band to release something of note (if you dismiss the actual release of Radiohead which i will for purposes of this blogs reputation: see albums of the year). Songs to kill to, songs to lie to and strangely songs to love to, Dev Hynes is a modern day tale teller of quirky sorts and his album sort of delves in to the less fanciable places of society, ironically for Hynes he delves far too deeply but it's wondrous to know the failures in such a beautiful creation....

Another band that entertained us in January was the strangely adaptive These New Puritians, i could possibly spill the usual bullshit journalist jargon about them being from stella Southend (Yes stella is spelt that way due to it being mostly full of stella lager drinkers), but no the album speaks for itself, it speaks largely in tongues but its quality. From Swords in Truth almost a nod to all those similar sounding hip hop records, but hell its out of tune English white kids to the almost brilliantness of Colours and yes they improve music ten fold.

January also said hello to Vampire Weekend with a collection of fun filled frolics, Cat Power singing a load of covers and Sons and Daughters releasing something extreme in delight.

February kicked in with Lupen Crooks latest effort, not only is it on par with his brilliant debut its almost too little, the Murderbirds have added a spike that was missing but it needs more yet still best to leave the audience as such. As for the Morrissey best of, please hardly a best of at least the two extra tracks nod interestingly at the new album due later this year.

Singles

Little has really excited me on the single front as of yet, except the odd gem. Firstly we had the dull affair of One Night Only, frankly one album only is too much for these Keane sounding chancers. Laura Marling's been kicking about but she's frankly too annoying to like and Biffy release another record of their latest sham fest, what a god awful record it was. Still Los Campesinos are as chirpy as they were in 2008 and it bodes well for the forthcoming album. Attic Lights seem capable of smashing into the music mind in 2008, and Blood Red Shoes build up to what surely will be a contender for album of the year with the latest single You Bring Me Down.

So finally this brings me to the chirpy almost ludicrously brilliant Hot Chip, Ready to a Floor betters anything on the debut and though I’ve not heard the record yet, if the single precludes the album in anyway then Hot Chip have finally arrived.......Fuck me Over & Over isn't a patch on this.