Sound Generator's Single Of The Week

As you may well have heard, Smiths legend Johnny Marr joined US indie merchants Modest Mouse not too long ago. It makes for an interesting footnote to an already great band; new single "Dashboard" sounds like a punchy American take on Franz Ferdinand or The Futureheads. It's a horribly over-used term, but this single is very definitely "angular", with an awkward, jangly guitar part, dancey rhythm and an infectious melody. A great introduction to a band who've never been as big here as they are back home; perhaps the Marr factor will change that.

The pick of the rest of this week's releases...

As regular readers of Rated Or Hated might know, LCD Soundsystem are among my least favourite bands, not least because of the irritating regularity with which they seem to shovel out singles. Well waddayaknow? Here's another one. But "All My Friends" has made me think twice about the 'System... I actually made all the way to the end of this song without wanting to grind the CD into powder and feed it to a stray dog. That's to say it's actually a pretty good track, all Talking Heads vocals and gradually building, percussive tension. Blimey. Check back next week folks, when normal service will no doubt have resumed.

The painted, faux-shocking clown that is Marilyn Manson still has a pretty huge profile; "Heart-Shaped Glasses" is pretty much what you'd expect, ie vocals that sound like he got a Dalek voice-changer for his birthday over doomy, de-tuned guitars which build to a chugging climax as depressing as it is predictable.

Anybody looking to try and start another ill-fated baggy revival? If so, sorry, but The Twang have beaten you to it. On "Either Way" though, there's a talky bit in the verse, roughly akin to fellow brummie Mike Skinner's approach to kitchen-sink lyricism. Then there's a chorus where The Twang do their best to jingle and jangle like it's 1989. Repeat four times, then fade to close. Not so much a bad song, just utterly unoriginal and criminally devoid of inspiration. Tiresome.

Unlike Ghosts, whose freshly melodic "The World Is Outside" appropriates recent mainstream indie heavyweights like Athlete or, we shudder to say it, Embrace. Expect to hear this song played over a montage of 'troubled relationship' clips on, say, Hollyoaks very soon indeed.

In other news, some group called Simply Red have released a song called "Stay" this week. Some ginger crooner sings lines like "Don't you change a single thing, 'coz to me girl you're the star" over a musical backdrop as horribly sterile as it gets. Ho, and indeed, hum.

written by on 31/05/2007 00:00:00