Cat Power – “Manhattan”… That sinking feline (Image: Angel 007)
The Rest of This Week’s Singles: Cat Power, Darwin Deez, Florrie and more!
Published on April 11th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams
We gave you The Best of This Week’s Singles. Then we inflicted The Worst of This Week’s Singles upon you. Now, brace yourselves for…
…The Rest of This Week’s Singles! Enjoy!
Cat Power – “Manhattan”
A good example of how to make brooding electro-pop while applying original touches to it rather than outright copying some ’80s number or other, this pops and clicks along under chiming piano chords and that doleful voice without quite taking flight into anything particularly arresting. Perhaps last year’s Sun album provides some necessary context.
Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!
Cold Cave – “God Made the World”
“God made the world / But I made this song”: debatable, Mr Cold Cave. We reckon New Order and Jarvis Cocker made this song in a parallel universe where neither of them are particularly interesting.
Will the ’80s ever go away? Can anyone operate a synth? We suspect not, and so, respectively.
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five!
Darwin Deez – “You Can’t Be My Girl”
Not one of the standout tracks from his/their recent Songs for Imaginative People album, though still an agreeable convergence of Dismemberment Plan, Tame Impala and whatnot. Nice video too.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Florrie – “Live a Little”
(Falls in love)
She drummed for who? Girls Aloud? Can’t hold that against her, not with such a compellingly insistent brass section at play. Chorus maybe not quite as explosive as it could be but this is promising stuff, alright.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Fossil Collective – “Wolves”
This sounds just like lots and lots of other things. If you’re into listening to the same understatedly emotional folk-pop again and again and again, this could be right up your street.
You might even fall in love to it and have it played at your wedding. “Wolves” by Fossil Collective could wind up soundtracking your life on Earth. It might very well take on that sort of resonance and significance for you. Doesn’t make it any less fingernail-chewingly dull, mind.
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five!
James Holden – “Gone Feral”
????
Rocksucker says: ??? Just kidding, we like it. Three Quails out of Five!
The Joy Formidable – “Little Blimp”
We didn’t dig their recent Wolf’s Law LP, https://rocksucker.co.uk/2013/01/review-joy-formidable-wolfs-law.html but this one’s not at all bad. It’s a rocky, blasty, disco-y, mean-ass kind of thing, as it happens; cheap thrills rendered with little touches of class that we couldn’t abide in large quantities but sounds pretty good in isolation.
Rhiannon Bryan’s vocals remind slightly of Karin from The Knife’s on this one, to its/their further credit. Upon humming a key refrain afterwards, however, we realise that there’s arguably a slight ‘borrow’ from “Seven Nation Army”, but we’ll give it the benefit of our doubt.
Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!
The Look – “Made It All”
We were expecting a hideous boyband when we saw that title; turns out The Look are a band that reached the top 10 in 1981 with “I Am The Beat”, and that this new song sounds a bit like that old song wrapped in a warm, Beach Boys-y production. It sounds like the better song to us too, all lush and festive, but for all we know that might register as sacrilege to The Look diehards.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Lucy Rose – “The Shiver”
This would be warmly applauded at an open mic – heck, we can even smell the stale lager as we converse inconsiderately with someone at the bar mid-set – but it’s a fairly run-of-the-mill brooding ballad. Well executed, and its title will no doubt resonate with cold people, but we prefer her last single “Lines” (well, the last one we reviewed, anyway).
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five!
Madness – “How Can I Tell You”
“Don’t become crystalline / You’re going to have to swim with the molecules”: Madness drummer Daniel ‘Woody’ Woodgate took a stab at explaining this line when we spoke to him last year, but of just as much interest is the classic Madness chorus this one flaunts. Not all of last year’s Oui Oui, Si Si, Ja Ja, Da Da LP succeeded, but this one did/does. Enjoy it for what it is rather than hold it up against what they used to be.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Nina Nesbitt – “Stay Out”
Ever so cutesy, some relatively witty lyrics but very little of interest in terms of songwriting, production, arrangement…basically all other channels for imaginaton. A more sarcastic Taylor Swift is a better Taylor Swift, but it’s still Taylor Swift.
Scratch that: this is what to play to an alien if he lands on your doorstep demanding to hear what kind of music we sync with annoyingly twee mobile phone adverts on this planet.
And please, world: no more “oh oh oh!” refrains. At least for one year.
Rocksucker says: Two Quails out of Five!
See you next week, everyone!
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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.
