Sound Generator's Single Of The WeekIt's with a mixture of trepidation and excitement that one approaches the first listen of a new song by
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy; trepidation because if it falls below his usual standards, there can only be disappointment, and excitement because this man has always been capable of sheer excellence. "Strange Form Of Life", happily, falls into the latter category. A brooding, rumbling song, there are melancholy male/female harmonies aplenty and the odd flash of melodic optimism. The master is back to his very best.
The pick of the rest of this week's releases...
Northern indie four-piece
The Hours quietly released one of the most polished albums so far this year in February, and "Love You More" is lifted from that album. This lot ain't no fresh-faced young upstarts, fronted as they are by ex-Pulp and Elastica man Antony Genn and featuring Black Grape's live keyboardist. What they are though, are purveyors of classy, melodic indie on the rockier boundaries. This single is a good pointer as to their capabilities, but for their standout moment, hunt down the awesome "Ali In The Jungle". You won't be disappointed.
A lot of people have been making a lot of fuss about
The Twang. But, despite the four-piece hailing from my own hometown of Birmingham, I'm not going to join this particular bandwagon. Their debut single "Wide Awake" drops today, and a more ordinary, unremarkable tune you're not likely to hear. Vaguely reminiscent of the Stone Roses and an awful lot of early nineties indie, it's certainly not a bad song, but it does fail spectacularly to justify the hype.
You probably don't need me to tell you what
Razorlight's "I Can't Stop This Feeling I've Got" sounds like, - either you've already got the album, or you've heard it splashed as it inevitably will be all over daytime radio. Borrell & Co are in typically bombastic form, with Johnny's hankering for an epic sound rising to the top on this one. For all that, it never quite bursts into exuberant life as it constantly threatens to.
Maximo Park are one of the better bands floating in that strata just below the big time, and "Our Velocity" is the lead single release from the boys' second LP "Our Earthly Pleasures", due next month. A rapid keyboard hook and crunching, two-chord guitar part makes the track a very close cousin of Blur's "Advert"; then the melody-infused, ultra-fast chorus takes the song somewhere else altogether. A quick, cheap thrill from a better than decent act.
Iain Archer does a pretty good impression of both Conor Oberst and Chris Martin on "Minus Ten", a lovely, lilting song with a pounding beat and luscious layers of guitar. It all comes out sounding a little bit like The Delays, which is no bad thing.
