Yeah Yeah Yeahs… Positive feedback (Image: Max Knies)
The Best of This Week’s Singles: The National, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ghostpoet and more!
Published on April 16th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams
Psst! Hey, kid: wanna see The Best of This Week’s Singles?
Here y’go…
Carrie Haber – “Dance Boy”
This Maltese talent counts The Zombies and Annie Lennox (odd pairing, we know) amongst her fans, while Rocksucker can personally attest to her grin-inducingly exuberant live performance. Her latest single sounds like a cross between Regina Spektor and Muse, another unlikely pairing yet one that she somehow makes work. Impressive stuff.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Findlay – “Off & On”
Sometimes a song manages to sound totally derivative and compellingly original at the same time. This is one such occasion, Findlay dragging BRMC riffery through a minefield of fevered, steaming oddity, much to Rocksucker’s delight. Yeah Yeah Yeahs fans, apply within.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Ghostpoet – “Meltdown”
Staggering, clattering, slurred cut from Ghostpoet’s forthcoming second album Some Say I So I Say Light; gloomy fare invested with touchingly direct lyrics to offset its strange gait, not to mention a lovely, sweet guest vocal from Woodpecker Wooliams for that ‘Tricky/Martina Topley-Bird’ dynamic. “This time I’ve got a following” repeats Mr Poet at the end (at least that’s what it sounds like), a nifty self-reference that promises more playful soul-searching to come.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
O Emperor – “Holy Fool”
We must confess to almost wanting to dislike this for the band’s GY!BE-making-you-think-of name and the initial, all-too-typical marriage of pounding drums of driving, monotone guitar…but it goes on to be this week’s best single by weaving an utterly irresistible form of harmony-infused psych-pop over the top of its two and a half minutes.
Just goes to show, eh?
Four Quails out of Five!
The National – “Demons”/”Don’t Swallow the Cap”
One of the year’s most anticipated returns is now in full swing with the unveiling of the smart, brooding “Demons” and the relatively propulsive (but still smart and brooding) “Don’t Swallow the Cap”. They both flaunt a welcome coming together of understatedness and sophistication, seemingly establishing that The National aren’t about to go all yucky stadium rock on us but without really capturing the imagination at this point.
We’ll await the album before passing further judgement, so in the meantime an appropriate quailing might be…
Rocksucker says: A Combined Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
SKATERS – “I Wanna Dance (But I Don’t Know How)”
Raw energy and/or washy guitar effects count for little without the songwriting nous to back it up; this one shows how to combine all three to good effect, and all in just under three minutes.
Probably best to slip those skates off before trying to dance, though. Just a thought.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Sacrilege”
Yep, that’s Karen O’s distorted yelp, alright. Ace clattering rhythm to prop up the twiddly-guitar atmospherics, too. Not sure what’s going on in the video, like. Some kind of weird Lolita thing, we guess; a trifle disturbing but there you go, shock value wins out again.
Ends rather unexpectedly with a gospel choir. Welcome back, YYYs.
Rocksucker says: Four Quails out of Five!
Tune in tomorrow for The Worst of This Week’s Singles!
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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.
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