THE BEST:
‘Turin Girl’ – Stephen James Band
Today
I learned the term ‘sophisti-pop’ – I don’t know if I like the word, but I’m going
to add it to my glossary of pretentious music journo terms anyway. ‘Turin Girl’
certainly sounds like sophisticated pop. Rather than following a traditional
pop structure, it plays out like a Broadway number in which the groovy guitars
and drums speed up and slow down to match the pace of the lovelorn lyrics. It’s
excitingly unpredictable and I’ve found myself continuously going back to it.
The Stephen James Band is made up of two members, Stephen James (it would be
weird if he wasn’t a member) and Zach Meyer, both hailing from Chicago. They
have an EP out soon titled Dead Phones And Dogs.
‘You Will Fill My Head’ – wwoman
The
longing in these lyrics borders on being creepily obsessive, as the chorus ‘you will fill my head’ later transforms
into ‘even when I’m dead’. It’s
another superb song from wwoman (who I’ve featured on this blog before) featuring
some similarly groovy bass and shiny synth swells. The minimal quality
meanwhile helps to add to the eerie atmosphere in the lyrics.
‘Uniforms’
– Captain of The Lost Waves
If
you’re wondering who this wacky vaudeville character is - he’s The Captain and according
to this lengthy interview he’s stepped out of the 1800s and now resides in a
timeless vortex (no way, some of my favourite bands come from the timeless
vortex!). His wild persona definitely had me intrigued and thankfully the music’s
pretty exciting too. This new single ‘Uniforms’ is a critique on how we’re all
dictated by fashion – even those that claim to be against the curve - delivered
to the accompaniment of theatrical instrumentation. The music video is one big party
in which a mix of soldiers and bikers discard their uniforms. I thought
everyone was going to get naked at the end, but sadly they didn’t.
‘The Mint’ – Earl Sweatshirt ft. Navy Blue
Earl
Sweatshirt is sounding rawer and weirder than ever before. Whilst the dusty beat
may not be quite as avant-garde as that found in ‘Nowhere2Go’, the way in which
the bars follow a different rhythm to the beat makes this equally jarring to
listen to. At the same time, the whole track has a hypnotic quality. Will I
able to handle a whole album of songs this rough and ready? We’ll see…
THE WORST:
‘Mopehead’
– Ariel Pink
The
video kept me engaged simply for the fact that it’s downright creepy. As for
the ‘music’ – it took me about two minutes to realise that this was just going
to be an entire track of static noise. Ariel Pink is clearly having his Metal Machine Music moment. I like
experimental stuff, but I draw the line at this.
‘Zombie Bastards’ – Weezer
Were
Weezer ever any good? Weren’t they once a rock band? Given the zombie theme, shouldn’t
this have been released around Halloween? Whatever the case, this is trash.