Falling Off Maps… But managing to stay on the pier
The rest of this week’s singles: Falling Off Maps, Frankie Rose, MS MR and more!
Published on August 15th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams
It’s the rest of this week’s singles, innit?
Want a fancy intro? **** off.
Ásgeir – “King and Cross”
The intro kind of reminded us of Kings of Convenience so we googled ‘asgeir kings of convenience’ to see if they were somehow affiliated.
Our search threw up a tweet from one @indieshuffle, who describes this as “Kings of Convenience meets Passion Pit”. That’s pretty much spot on.
Nice stuff.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
C2C – “Happy”
Nantes’s finest turntablists are back! Er, after an absence of a few weeks.
Good party fare with one of those “hey, look at this funky dancing” videos. It’ll do.
Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!
CHVRCHES – “The Mother We Share”
Too many people have access to synths these days. Bloody sick of songs featuring an “uh-oh, uh-oh” motif too…honestly, there seem to be about six a week.
And don’t get us started on bands who stylise their names all in capitals to ‘stand out from the crowd’. Honestly, we’re *this* close to being non-complicit.
Chvrches. There, was that so hard?
Oh look, they shoehorn the word ‘fuck’ in there, just for extra added credibility. Better get announcing them as the best new something or other in the whatever, we suppose.
This is like a slightly more exuberant MS MR (see below). It’s really not all that bad, to be honest; it’s just fairly bland, way too trendy for its own good and a darn sight less clever than it seems to think it is.
Rocksucker says: Two Quails out of Five!
Daughter – “Youth”
Yes yes, very emotional.
Florence with guitars.
Rocksucker says: Two Quails out of Five!
Falling Off Maps – “Honest”
Robin van Persie-looking bloke stands shirtless and waist-deep in water, looking pained and not being shy about wailling about it over folky, minor-key guitar. Doesn’t bode well.
You’d think the addition of beatboxing would kill it off completely, wouldn’t you? Well, that’s where you’d be wrong; it’s rhythmically unusual enough to bring the whole thing together somehow, casting a finer light on all its surrounding elements…even RVP’s vocal, which is actually quite well measured as it turns out.
Hands up, we thought we had something unbearably douchey on our hands, but it lands surprisingly close to Radiohead. Fair play.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Frankie Rose – “Sorrow”
One of many ’80s revivalists doing the rounds at the moment, but definitely one of the better ones. Some lovely sweet dissonance to the chords on this one, tying it all together to really quite beguiling effect.
Nicely punctuated sort of step to the strumming, and a swoonsome string section to boot. Cynicism well and truly batted off.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Josh Record – “The War”
James Blake for people who find James Blake too confusing.
Merits a bonus half quail for refraining from breaking into the ghastly FM radio lift-off it threatens.
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five!
MS MR – “Think of You”
MS MR have some interesting ideas with regards production and arrangement. It’s just a shame their singer and their songwriting are each so downright featureless.
Rocksucker says: Two Quails out of Five!
NYPC – “Hard Knocks”
Amusing video; song passes by fairly innoccuously until about a third of the way through, when deliciously groovy backing vocal harmonies arrive to supplement the weird chiming sound that falls somewhere in between melodic hook and percussive element.
The refrain of “Waiting for hard knocks, the school of / I think you are” is Yoda-tastic, too. Charmingly daft stuff, and hang on ’til the end…the video takes a rather strange twist.
Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!
Public Service Broadcasting – “Theme from PSB”
Watch out Pet Shop Boys, you have acronym-based competition!
This is kind of like Battles meets Lemon Jelly, without managing to be quite as striking as either. Still pretty decent though, even if old-school public service broadcasting samples is about as innovative an idea as making a cheese sandwich.
Rocksucker says: Three Quails out of Five!
That’s the rest of this week’s singles for yiz. Have a great weekend, all!
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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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