John Legend… Yoink!
The Rest of This Week’s Singles: John Legend, Hot Chip, Poliça and more!
Published on June 13th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams
It would be damned negligent of us not to bring you the rest of this week’s singles…
Echopark – “Brother”
Say hello to the new project from London-based Italian musician Antonio Elia Forte, folks! This ‘un sounds a bit like Doves and Efterklang jamming around a big, fizzing, whirring synth line; okay, it’s not quite as amazing as that scenario would be entitled to be, but it makes a good fist of it.
Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!
Hot Chip – “Dark & Stormy”
Hot Chip were so close to being brilliant; “Ready for the Floor” and “One Life Stand” were razor-sharp singles, a progressive synthesis of, er, synthesisers and quirky pop songwriting, but they retreated disappointingly into themselves on last year’s In Our Heads album and continue to do so here.
What happened to that winning way with melodies and progressions? Why so predictable all of a sudden? “Dark & Stormy” has some nice, faintly hypnotic electronic elements inhabiting its mix but it doesn’t feel like Hot Chip have progressed at all.
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five!
John Legend feat. Rick Ross – “Who Do We Think We Are”
If this was a log raft in a cartoon, it would be approaching a fork in the river: one side leads to clear blue skies over Marvin Gaye singing to the birds and trees, the other to the bank of a filth-ridden swamp where R. Kelly is sitting in a rocking chair, loading up a shotgun and lining up your ears as targets.
Basically, if you’re looking for a melancholic soul fix, you could do much better and much worse than this.
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five!
Josef Salvat – “Hustler”
Good lyrics, subtly alluring arrangements and dynamics too. A little on the dull side but, you know, some people like that.
Salvat’s a bit like a sort of James Blake for Lana Del Rey fans. Yes, that’ll do.
We were going to attempt something along the lines of “not enough to have us Sal(i)vating” but we can’t be bothered to give it the further thought it clearly requires.
Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!
Lorde – “Tennis Court”
This is like bad pop, but good.
Take a listen, perhaps you’ll see what we mean. It’s an encouraging development insomuch as Rocksucker would much rather kids listening to this, with its actual snippets of genuine creativity, rather than whatever codswallop Rihanna’s warbled all over most recently…but there’s still that whiff of T4 about it.
Here’s hoping Lorde follows through with her quirkier instincts in future. Yes, that was a lame attempt at a tennis pun.
Ah, screw you.
Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!
Poliça feat. Justin Vernon – “Tiff”
“I’m a pawn in the hype machine” – unwitting self-summary or incisive self-awareness? Sorry, still don’t ‘get’ this sort of Grimes-pop and the reams of plaudits that trail in its various wakes; there’s some decent percussive stuff going on in the middle eight but, otherwise, it just sounds like someone fiddling about with Logic until something half-decent-sounding emerged.
It’s several rungs above the likes of Florence and the Machine and even features “the Bon Iver guy”, but it’s still really quite dull. So tell us, what are we missing?
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five!
Tripwires – “Shimmer”
1977-era Ash, is that you? Longpigs, even?
“Shimmer” is derivative at almost every turn – seriously, you could go through it pausing every fifteen seconds to point out who or what has just been ripped-off/emulated/coincidentally evoked – but it’s still good, sludgy grunge-lite.
On balance, Tripwires are just about welcome. Perhaps more as a gateway to other, superior bands, but welcome nevertheless.
Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!
See you next week, singletons!
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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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