Sound Generator's Single Of The Week:
Hard-Fi go back yet again to the hits-yielding cookie jar that is "Stars Of CCTV", and pull out the
fifth single release from the album, "Better Do Better". Lyrically, it's a vitriolic f**k-you in the face to an ex ("Your face, it makes me wanna be sick"); musically, it's the usual polished, Clash-tinged, ska-pop-plus-big-chorus stormer that Hard-Fi excel in.
The pick of the rest of this week's releases...
Proof that singer-songwriter and critic's darling
Jose Gonzalez richly deserves to avoid the tag of 'one hit wonder' comes with "Crosses", the second single release from the superb "Veneer". Essentially, this is more of the same - ie richly woven, haunting and repetitive classical guitar, over which hovers Jose's distant but strangely warm vocals. Whether it'll make as much of a mark as "Heartbeats" remains to be seen, however.
Damon Albarn's ageless
Gorillaz drop a double A-side, "Kids With Guns / El Manana". Even cartoons mature though; "El Manana", especially, shows a grown-up attitude to pop songwriting which stands in stark contrast to the early Gorillaz material. It's a chilled out, string-based tune, which wouldn't have sounded out of place on the last Blur album.
Gotan Project, "Differente". This is a limited edition 10" taster single for forthcoming album "Lunatico"; a sassy tango/dance/ambient crossover, kept interesting by singer Veronika Silva's sultry Spanish-language vocals.
The lead track from
Whirlwind Heat's "Reagan EP" sounds like a lo-fi take on New Order's "Blue Monday", shot through with irritating percussion and vocals not a million miles away from Stephen Malkmus' lazy drawl. The song's irritatingly sparse verse is rescued by a punchy chorus, but the EP as a whole has a very 'stunningly average unsigned band' feel about it.
Euros Childs is the frontman from Welsh indie pioneers Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, and judging by this single, he's in a very fey frame of mind. "Costa Rica" is like Otis Redding's "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay" sung by Belle & Sebastian and set in a chilly British seaside resort. A simple little love song about an ice-cream seller and a peanut seller, it'll appeal to the more romantically minded indie fan.
