Chan Marshall, aka
Cat Power, has hitherto been wilfully oblique in the span of her several superb alums. "The Greatest", title track of last year's album, is a little different; it's smooth, smoky, and a song of precious beauty. A vague echo of "Moon River" floats somewhere in the piano-led melodies and cool sting arrangements, but this is a much more melancholy affair. A genuinely brilliant song from an artist who's happy to remain at an arm's length from her audience.
The pick of the rest of this week's releases...
So what the hell happened to
The Magic Numbers? Was their shimmering musical spell cast upon us for just that one heady summer a couple of years back, only for their musical lustre to quickly fade? Or did we all just get bored of their bittersweet, wistful smileyness? "This Is A Song" is their newie, lifted from second album "Those The Brokes", and it's more of the same. The harmonies are nice, the melodies are nice, but it's all a little too... nice, I guess.
We don't need to ask what happened to the
Kaiser Chiefs; they're back (although they never really went away). "Ruby" is the lead single from the forthcoming "Yours Truly, Angry Mob", and sees the Chiefs in typically bouncy form, trading heavily as usual on their catchy, singalong formula. There's a tinge of Morrissey-esque intonation from Ricky Wilson in the verse, which has a distinctly eighties tinge, but otherwise it's another big indie hit-in-waiting for the Leeds boys.
In what seems to be a week for comeback singles,
Sophie Ellis-Bextor has another ill-advised stab at the big time, with "Catch You". She's back! This time, she's got
guitars as well! To be fair, this is a reasonable pop song, heavy on the dance beats and light on substance. It really is nothing special, though, and even the official press release for this single seems like it's trying and failing to convince itself that this song is anything other than, well, a bit pointless.
Old-before-his-time U.S. troubadour
Willy Mason does his best to "Save Myself". Predictably enough, this is melancholy singer-songwriter fare with a folky ambience. Such a wise outlook and mellow musical maturity may well be admirable in one so young, but you'd hardly call it exciting; you keep expecting the sparse verse to burst into a big, cathartic chorus, but it never quite happens. Disappointing, to say the least.
"A Journey From A To B" is a pretty apt title for
Badly Drawn Boy's latest. It starts, it meanders along for a bit, it finishes. Thrilling, it is not. Crushingly dull, it most certainly is.
