For want of a better trail of thought, this is a list of songs I simply do not want to exorcise from my brain. They are currently burning there, like a few miniature black holes, gnawing their wicked way into my cerebellum... perhaps I'll blame the Hadron Collider, but either way, here goes!
The Horrors
If you, like me, denounced these fashionista nitwits as just a pair of shoes and a disposition with
Wurzel Gummage hair, then you might want to take a seat. Sea Within A Sea does away with those
ruddy garage guitars and defines them as something a whole lot more alluring. They synths weave
about, dancing like traffic lights on one of those sped-up Japanese art films, and echoes of ELO,
Depeche Mode and even Neu! less likely to see Faris the victim of someone's fist dismiss, more
likely to see some rather excitable journos. Post-punk has rarely given as much joy in 8 minutes.
Animal Collective
I'm shamefully just going to copy a review I did for This Is Fake DIY for this week's singles releases...
but you'll get the gist. Check out the video though if you're curious to see Panda Bear looking like a
piranha as the band swim in a psychedelic sea of amoeba.
For some reason, this song feels like being in an aviary, its depth of sound – the handclaps, the interweaving vocals of Avey Tare and Panda Bear, the pitter patter of tinny synths and a massive, throbbing heart. It would be enough to drive you to staring into a black hole, trying to draw out the feeling to own it.
Racing back to the start, however, as this baby grows from embryonic simplicity of the slightly ostinato synths that pre-empt the beat and add the third dimension to Animal Collective’s new offspring, into the quiet chaos over five and a half minutes. For a lyric of so much basic need: “I don’t mean to seem like I care about material things/ I just want four walls and adobe slats for my girls”, it seems this trio have mastered anything but a simple single.
The canonical repetition between Avey and Panda is disorientating and similarly comforting, growing into an almost tribal cavalcade of beats and lateral movement. When frequently dirgy offerings are brought up, it’s easy to forget how lofty music can make you feel. With ‘My Girls’, Animal Collective leave you somehow feeling as though they’ve reinvented sliced bread, if not the wheel.
Filthy Dukes
'Nonesense In The Dark'
Sadly no vid for this gem, and perhaps it will save me some pelting with tomatoes and such like - it ain't the greatest - but it has reminded me of how much I miss The Maccabees and Orlando Weeks' lovelorn vocals... part slurry, part romantic fool... half the time these things amount to the same nonetheless. Back to the song, it's very basic electronica but quite beautiful at the same time.
The Rakes
If you were under the impression The Rakes were just preparing to dine out on '22 Grand Job' like
some kind of modern-day 'I Don't Like Mondays' then please, take a moment to revel in these careering
guitars, and Alan Donahoe in full mirthless flow. "Sometimes you can't smell the shit until you're in it."
Disagreeing with a single piece of his lyrics will surely mean you're a dick, and one in denial at that.
The Decemberists
Now, you have to forgive me what I'm about to say, particularly if you're of the opinion that Colin
Meloy is god.... but I just don't get him. He uses far too many words when simplicity begs to take
over. That said, this final nugget on their latest album - a rock opera, no less - The Hazards of Love,
is wonderfully crafted with Becky Stark's voice taking the untenability of Meloy away. The strings
are sumptuous and even the lap steel can be forgiven for rearing its head. If you wanted to hear
how Wagner would close his rock opera, this is possibly a quarter of the way there.
