Releases 5th December 2005

This week I am bringing you six releases instead of the usual four. This is because it’s silly season now and there are lots of review-worthy releases. And also, we feel guilty about last week’s debacle, which can be 'blamed' on Indie Girl's devotion to her studies and revision which means she's been unable to write up the reviews. Hence why she's missing from this week's reviews as well. I will have to make this two-man riot a solo thing.

Edit: Indie Girl is here! Unbeknowst to me, Pop Boy has posted the reviews without me but I am here. Not that you missed me or anything, my reviews are generally a bit half arsed and never even half as good or professional as Pop Boy's but hey ho. I did plan to do them today and i'm sorry that I didn't do them last week but Indie Girl is currently suffering from insomnia, sleep depravation and general stress. I will try to keep up to speed with the blog. I feel really quite guilty about last week as well, I feel bad for Pop Boy. Expect an entry into our Music Hall of The Not So Famous (remember that?) on Scissor Sisters and a little rant about my trip to see a certain Mr Wainwright soon.

Mystery Jets – Alas Agnes
PB:I am so incredibly cool. I was in love with this song all the way back in March. Their previous single ‘You Can’t Fool Me Dennis’ (particularly the Justice remix) was also one of my favourite indie tracks of the autumn. So I’m very much looking forward to an album from these weirdos.

The band set up is typical story really, a five piece band from Twickenham’s Eel Pie Island that is fronted by Blaine Harrison but features his father Henry on, amongst other things, a mellotron in indie-pop’s best/only father-son combination. On paper, they are undoubtedly unique. However, unlike so many press release half-truths, this band really IS truly unique.

Upon hearing ‘Alas Agnes’ the first time I didn’t know quite what to make of it. It’s cheerily jaunty, eerily choral and unlike so many bands trying to create a new sound by making the sound of indie bands of the future, The Jets create a new sound by making the sound of indie bands from 1884 (“dancing to mellotron like the gentry from 1884” and all that). It’s ironic then that is aged sound is the sound of the past but also very much the sound of the future.

Mystery Jets, a real one-in-a-million band raising up from the monotony of Bloc Party and The Doves.

IG: I had only heard the name of Mystery Jets before Pop Boy suggested we review this track for our releases garb.

So, at the start I began to worry that the group singing was the start of something G4. Yes, that was until the track blew up into a whole big lot of weird and wonderful folk rock randomness. Seriously, just buy it for originality alone! It’s great! Don’t know if I will pursue my like of them further but this song is really good.

It isn’t following the general indie criteria but it’s a change and a good one at that. Woo!

Kanye West ft. Adam Levine – Heard ‘Em Say
PB: Indie Girl and Pop Boy have not always known each other. And when we were getting to know one another one of the bands we’d both obsess about was Maroon 5 (don’t judge us!). And yet, after 2004’s ‘Songs About Jane’ we’ve heard nothing new from them. So allow our appetite’s to be somewhat whetted by Adam’s Kanye collaboration, a possible direction for the new album? (anyone who heard ‘Woman’ produced by Kanye may agree that this is no bad thing).

But enough of talking about our poster boy, this is Kanye’s single, so now we shall talk about Kanye. Although it does feature Adam, this single doesn’t appear to use a sample (I may be wrong) unlike it’s predecessors from ‘Late Registration’. Kanye has made a record here that for me, finally justifies the hype (OK, I’ll admit it, ‘Gold Digger’ is good to dance to but so is Steps). Kanye goes all political making a statement about racism and corruption in America, almost as if to back up his “Bush doesn’t give a damn about Black America”.

There are so many songs that have mixed music with politics with disastrous consequences, however here Kanye makes a song that blends the two together naturally. There is the message, but it’s subtley written enough for you to be able to just enjoy the keys twinkle in the background and sing along to the chorus harmlessly enough.

IG: As you’ll hear me say about Gwen, just any type of R&B provokes yawning in me.

Though I’m willing to give this a small listen as it features Adam Levine of Maroon 5 but still. Ugh. A lot of “uh” and “yeah” of course, though it is repeated as if all the other R&B artists will make fun of Kanye if he doesn’t use them enough and the rap if generally about the same load of old tripe (not that I was actually paying much attention.)

Sure enough, Kanye is one of those few rap artists who I have a mild amount of respect for but this song is just tiresome despite the fact that it gets quite good whenever Kanye isn’t rapping and then he goes and ruins it again. The end is good at least, for more reasons that one.
Even Mr Maroon 5 is underused and sounds far too much like the Timberlake. Pah! Slightly less annoying that Golddigger though so that’s a mild triumph.

Sugababes – Ugly
PB: Written for the Sugababes by Dallas ‘Trick Me’ and‘Just Like A Pill’ Austin after he read their portrayal in the British press. This makes a great record brilliant in context, and with the only band that could have ‘fit’ it. Much like ‘Heard ‘Em Say’, there is a message hidden (not so subtley mind) underneath the luscious song. And what a sweet sentiment to push us into the festive period and season of good will. Could this be an indication of things to come, things in store for 2006, great songs with even greater messages to put to the people? I sure hope so (although, if I’m honest, it’s purely to see if it can be pulled off).

The girls all sound on top form here which is excellent. After straddling the charts like a dog on heat with ‘Push The Button’, Mutya, Keisha and lovely Heidi (ooo-lovely lovely Heidi!!) are throwing dirt in Girls Aloud’s eyes in an attempt to keep their crown as Britain’s top girl band (yeah – get real!!!!!!11eleven) by releasing another cracker from their new album ‘Taller In More Ways’. This should be a tough act to follow, good luck single number 3.

IG: Something a bit different as well from the ‘Babes. And such a refreshing change from the overly irritating and overplayed “Push The Button” [PB- Bravo!]

Electro-ish overtones replaces the tired R&B beat as they actually deliver a proper message (!!!) This is perhaps not a particularly fun song, but it’s good because it’s such a change for the better. I really hope this is a hit for the girls as it is much better than their previous chart topper.

Franz Ferdinand – Walk Away
PB: Lyrics as theatrical and brilliant as ever. After the youthful art party hedonism of ‘Do You Want To’, Franz become much more poetic, thoughtful and mature with ‘Walk Away’. The key to understanding the awesomeness of this song is the simultaneous bathos and pathos and the “No quake will split the ground” line. It really is all just amazingly clever.

At this point I'd leave Indie Girl to tell you more about Franz, because quite frankly, she knows what she's talking about and I'm a bumbling fool when it comes to La Franz, but in her absence you'll just have to imagine her fan girl rambles.

IG: I'm here, I'm here!

Classic Franz, but just a little bit different. The familiar sound of the Franz guitar, Alex’s sumptuous vocals, but something is a bit different. It’s a bit sinister and different, bit of a torch song rather than an anthem like their last single “Do You Want To?”

The lyrics continue to be as kitsch as ever and make perhaps even less sense than normal but that’s not necessarily bad… namechecking Radio Four and various old World leaders cannot ever be bad, can it? It’s Franz.

Franz rule. End of.

Performance – Surrender
PB: Please allow us, for one second, to get extremely cunty and superior here. ‘Surrender’ is brilliant, but you commoners on the surface wouldn’t know about that because you probably haven’t heard this. Originally pencilled in for release on 7” only when we were deciding which songs to do it now appears to have disappeared from release schedules, but you know, we’re so into this, we’ll write about it anyway. Anyone reading it is just a bonus.

Actually, I have Indie Girl to thank for finding this brilliant electro treasure and would advise you to find it on iTunes. So many words can describe it: lush, sexy, tortured or just ace.

This is an incredibly gay track, just check out the “Stop me if it starts to hurt you” line which is either about anal sex or sado-masochism and the “backs to the wall” line. Plus of course, it’s indulgently beautiful electro.

IG: Repetitive electro wonderful-ness now! I can’t get enough! I really can’t! And this track is just so 80s, it hurts.

A limited release but available for download on iTunes is Performance. I magically came across their low budget video in The Amp one morning and told myself I had to get the track. The bass rocks, the vocals are heartfelt and talky. It’s just great. The lyrics probably make absolutely no sense at all but I really don’t give one solitary fuck.

Fantastic for jerking about to in your room like a good electro-indie kid to. Get it!

Gwen Stefani – Luxurious
PB: Let me take you to a magical place. Where tasteless bigots were all shot for possession of Oasis albums, U2 had been trapped in the 1980s, Coldplay were busking the streets of London waiting for their big break, teenagers across the world cried over the A*Teens split, Girls Aloud were on the cover of NME and packing out stadiums, everyone bought ‘Come & Get It’ and Richard X was made king of music.

This is the alternate world of music. Brilliant isn’t it? In this world, Gwen could at least try to release the really-really-mega-fucking-great stuff off ‘L.A.M.B.’ instead of the really-really-just-great-and-still-better-than-95%-of –the-people-doing-what-she’s-doing stuff. It’s infuriating that Gwen will remembered for decidedly hip-pop songs like ‘Rich Girl’ and ‘Luxurious’ instead of mighty pop anthems like ‘Bubble!Pop!Electric!’ or ‘Serious’ or ‘Crash’ or ‘Danger Zone’ or ‘The Real Thing’. What’s worse is she doesn’t even dress up like a Pirate, or pretend to be Madonna/a brown haired Italian-American girl (yes, I know - technically she is but shush), or Alice In Wonderland or Torrence from Bring It On in the video, she just acts like a white girl from the OC who wishes she was a black girl from New York who likes pinatas. Which is just a bit boring really.

I’m not saying ‘Luxurious’ is rubbish, because it isn’t. I’m just saying I’d rather hear practically any other album track be the single. And radio edits with rappers added onto them never were and never will be cool.

IG: Oh Gwen! What have you done? From the punky tone of No Doubt to the pop genius of “What You Waiting For?” but now Gwen has given to R&B worshipping masses, just so she can be successful in the USA. This was Gwen’s chance to redeem herself after “You Got It Like That” with Pharrell (which I loathed) and this is certainly not as good as any of Gwen’s previous singles. I mean, where the hell is the random spelling out of the names of fruits?!!!!?!?!

Maybe this is because, even though it’s Gwen, I cannot just spark up interest about any kind of R&B music at all. Sure, this is a different kind of R&B but the little voice in my head tells me that Gwen has sold out. I thought she was getting back on track with “Cool” but no. Perhaps her choice, but if she had continued with wonderful bizarre pop or the luscious indie punk then I would have a lot more time and respect for Ms Stefani.

Favourites:
Best - PB: Mystery Jets IG: Performance
Worst - PB: SHOCK! Gwen SHOCK!! IG: Kanye

In summary: In a week when a Gwen Stefani single is the worst release of any significance and Girls Aloud release an album (that 'Confessions' stylee , I can't hear until Christmas) you know Indie Girl's missed out on a cracker of a week.

IG: Once again, I apologise about not being up to speed. I know you're getting sick of me slacking Pop Boy. It is meant to be a bit of fun, but I will try to stop falling behind. Ta rah.