Plan B… The backlash starts here, folks (img: Tony2Times)
Singles: Plan B, Killers, Coxon, RHCP, Hot Chip, Tulisa, and some others!
Published on September 13th, 2012 | Jonny Abrams
Welcome back to singles clubbed! This week’s singles-to-be-clubbed include all of the following…
Amelia Lily – “You Bring Me Joy”
“I’ve been thinking ’bout everything I never had”
Oh, really? Like what?
“All those crazy doubts, only gonna make me mad”
I see. Anything else?
“I’ve been thinking ’bout everything I should’ve done”
Don’t dwell on the past, Amelia. Your next single could still be good.
“I’m looking back, when I’ve only just begun”
Have you been thinking about or looking at anything else?
“I’ve been thinking ’bout standing on the razor’s edge”
Well, damn.
“Looking up and down, questions running through my head”
Was one of the questions “Why am I headbanging?”
“I’ve been thinking ’bout how on the which way to turn”
Okay directlyrics.com, that’s got to be a typo.
“I’ve been thinking ’bout lessons that I’ll never lean”
…such as checking for typos, directlyrics.com.
This song was on at the gym the other day. That’s all you need to know.
Rocksucker says: One Quail out of Five!
AxeWound – “Cold”
Trivium, you have a new challenger in the Sounding Like a Tramp Vomiting Into a Cement Mixer County Championships. If the band did in fact name themselves after a certain popular euphemism then we’d have to say it’s entirely apt because these guys… (snip – Rocksucker’s lawyers)
Rocksucker says: Half a Quail out of Five!
Boys Noize – “XTC”
“XTC, XTC, XTC, one for me” – you might think this sounds inane but this is sodding Pet Sounds compared to the first two singles. A screeching electro-y groove that breaks into wibbly wobbly dancefloor fare, “XTC” – nothing to do with Andy Partridge and co., since you ask – gradually builds into filmic strings and what sounds like a motorcar accelerating. Glowsticks at the ready!
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five
Dominique Pruitt – “To Win Your Love”
You know when you’re out and a spectacularly cheesy song from an ’80s movie comes on and everyone around you starts singing along really enthusiastically, milking the happy marriage of being ironic and actually having fun, sipping from the heady cocktail of candy and mutiny? Bingo! It’s even got a key change. Commendably authentic.
Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!
Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen – “Good Time”
That’s it, start with the warble; just so we know what we’re getting ourselves into. Isn’t the video just ripping off Rebecca Black? Let’s face it, if you’re ripping off a 13-year-old girl then you probably aren’t much of an ‘ideas’ person.
To be fair there is one key difference: in this video they end up in the woods, those disappointingly bearless woods, but that’s it.
If “Good Time” by Owl City & Carly Rae Jepsen was a pizza, it would be a rubbish pizza.
Rocksucker says: Half a Quail out of Five!
Fixers – “Pink Light”
Like a really earthbound Animal Collective soundtracking a gay disco. T4 will be chuffed as buttons with this, their new anthem; it’s got a pumping beat, annoying synths, “oh oh oh”s, all the crowd-pleasers you could ask for. And just in time for freshers’ week! How wonderful.
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five!
Graham Coxon – “Advice”
Heavens be praised, sanity is preserved! This is an odd choice of single from the excellent A+E LP,, but it’s still thrillingly off-kilter and explosive with it.
Rocksucker says: Four Quails out of Five!
Hot Chip – “How Do You Do?”
Though it slots in, this is not one of the stronger tracks from their actually quite decent In Our Heads album, but perhaps its low-key repetitiveness is what qualifies it for singledom these days. The video’s nothing much to write home about either. A shame.
Rocksucker says: Two Quails out of Five!
The Killers – “Runaways”
It’s actually frightening to think how much they must have spent on this video. Some nice drumming, but the redeeming features end there; this is equal parts piss and poor, like Bon Jovi and Keane mangling Boston’s “More Than a Feeling”. “We used to hold each other ’til the morning light” – oh, Brandon. No doubt this will be a HUGE hit, despite the fact that The Killers have been consistently releasing the same basic song for several years now. Like Kings of Leon, they just keep getting more and more hideously bloated; but unlike Kings of Leon, The Killers were never much cop to begin with.
Rocksucker says: One and a Half Quails out of Five!
Labrinth – “Treatment”
The Killers? Is that you? Oh, I’m sorry guitar-pop shorthand for male emotion, I mistook you for someone else. Is there any point to this? Or to anything? What’s going on?
Rocksucker says: One Quail out of Five!
Marques Toliver – “Magic Look”
Really good production and arrangements, a nicely huffing string section and satisfying spread of colours; it’s a shame then that the vocals are wetter than an otter’s pocket. Toliver has a decent voice but it offers little of interest compared to the music around it.
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five!
Peace – “Bloodshake”
Afro-beat drums and cascading, reverb-drenched fast-picked guitars, yadda yadda yadda. Take your pick of Two Door Cinema Club, Klaxons, Vampire Weekend, Foster the People and The Drums: yeah, they sound a bit like that.
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five!
Plan B – “Deepest Shame”
Aptly titled, “Deepest Shame” may be hamstrung by having to conform to the plot of a film, which by the way leads to some rather clunky narrative, but moreover his singing voice is just too limp. The better tracks on his now Mercury-nominated Ill Manners soundtrack are the ones with a bit of fire in their belly; and more pointedly, the ones on which he only raps.
Rocksucker says: One Quail out of Five!
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Magpies”/”Victorian Machinery”
Though “Magpies” passes by uneventfully, “Victorian Machinery”‘s rocking verse and delicate, psych-lite chorus amount to a strong show of songwriting that builds nicely on the couple from the other week. They’ll always sound a lot like Red Hot Chili Peppers, which is fair enough seeing as though they are Red Hot Chili Peppers. In any case, they’ve put out some nice stuff of late, so credit where it’s due.
Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!
Sincere – “Deja Vu”
This is so sincerely awful that we won’t even do it the courtesy of copy pasting its title from Google so that the accents are in it. There’s been some stiff competition this week’s Dead Quail but this “Deja Vu” blows the competition away by starting badly and confirming its winner’s credentials with arguably its trump card: autotuned vocals. Sincerely, yours…
Tulisa feat. Tyga – “Live It Up”
Slight trying-to-look-like-Beyonce fail aside – ooh, we’ll say anything! – this is surprisingly not too bad. Mind you, this week’s singles aren’t a vintage batch.
Rocksucker says: One and a Half Quails out of Five!
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About the Author
Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.
