Singles of the Week

The man wore special specs to prevent burning his eye.

Radio Birdman

You Just Make It Worse

(Crying Sun Records)

As someone who’s never seen Radio Birdman in their natural habitat of live performance, I’m finding it difficult to imagine You Could Make It Worse at the appropriate levels of decibel and smoke-soakedness.

Still, from the opening, descending riff and the deployment Rob Younger’s ageless, biting vocals, it would seem that Radio Birdman have lost none of their bitter snarl. In this atmosphere of recycled rock imagery, Radio Birdman here sound gloriously fresh.

The cops cuffed the busker then took his coin-filled hat with them to the crime lab.

Old Man River

Trousers

(Independent)

‘Won’t you set your dreams on fire…’ croons Old Man River, Ohad Rein, with suitably detached melancholy. I’m just not sure what the removal of trousers has to do with it all. Must be, like, metaphor, or something. Like the origami in Blade Runner.

Twangs of electric and slide guitar threaten to inject Rein’s track with some sweetness to counteract the shade, but this alt-country jangle remains pleasantly savoury throughout.

Owls Of The Swamp

Days In The Night EP

(Independent)

It’s said that one’s first mental image is the most telling, and here, in hushed sepia tones, I’m recollecting the scene from Never Ending Story where Atreyu’s horse sinks in the mud, but instead of the horse, it’s Radiohead.

Owls Of The Swamp, a project by Pete from Two Thousand Mavericks, is a lush, organic foray through acoustic melancholy and electrified affectations, though held back by a voice which isn’t quite there yet. Then again, the breathy baritone lends the EP a sad sense of fragility and nocturnal sombre.

And we are as grateful for their return as the people of Middle Earth were when Aragorn appeared beside Arwen, beard trimmed and hair washed, at the end of Return Of The King.

Coldplay

The Hardest Part

(EMI)

I don’t understand how Chris Martin can continue to be so melancholy. The guy’s married to Gwyneth Paltrow, and has sired a kid called Apple. Would hate to see how he’d react if he was Brad Pitt’s character in Se7en.

“Here you go, write a song about this, you mopey, pasty bastard”, he said, as he handed over the box…

Teddy Geiger

For You I Will (Confidence)

(Sony/BMG) AAARRRGGHH!!! 17-year-old manages to combine emo-self-harm aesthetic with soppy, string-laden balladry!!! Oh Teddy, you blow so hard. Might wanna try getting yourself laid before you start writing songs about how you can’t.

Memento’s ‘let’s tell the story backwards’ approached worked well, but Memento had a distinct advantage over yourself, insofar as it didn’t suck.

The Kits

This Is Your Lung EP

(Casa Tortuga Records)

I may have been a tad harsh on The Kits in the past. Perhaps it’s envy grounded in the fact that their facial hair and attire is far cooler than anything I could muster. Or perhaps the fact that their previous EP was kinda boring.

Either way, This Is Your Lung vaguely threatens to be an incendiary rock release, and come closest to achieving it on City to City, with the call-and-reply vocal intro, thumping toms and grimy guitars (replete-with a singing, reverb-drenched solo) contributing to an organic, non-linear, swampy arrangement.

Whilst the redemption isn’t quite as profound as that witnessed when the one-armed Darth Vader picks up the Emperor and flings him over that ledge in Return Of The Jedi, this still holds the band in good stead for their forthcoming London jaunt.

Special Patrol

Changing Emily

(Independent)

Jangly alt-country which sporadically reveals bursts of operatic harmony, Changing Emily takes a sweet idea and stretches it a little bit too far, much like the Police Academy series of films.

The track only really switches between the mournful-pop verses and soaring choruses, and whilst they are both quite lovely on their own, the song calls for some sort of off-kilter interlude, to prevent it from being too much of a good thing.

So obsessed were they to preserve the element of surprise, the guys forgot to organise birthday fare and decorations.

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness

According To Plan

(Shock / Secretly Canadian)

The rumble of bass drum and fuzz bass introduce According To Plan with the kind of ominousness expected from a band named as such.

The track soon opens up to reveal a contradiction of angelic, echoing guitars, and lyrics heralding a ‘perfect world’. Perhaps their darkness is only a pale shade of grey.

Regardless, they form an impenetrable bedrock of synth-based minimalism, and its this singular insistence that propels what washes over it to levels of detached, ethereal beauty.

This is the soundtrack to a film that’s yet to be written, but would most likely feature during a scene in which our provocateur finds himself surveying the darkened dancefloor of a post-millennial, basement club.