Gruff Rhys… Not pictured: Gruff Rhys
The Best of This Week’s Singles: Gruff Rhys, Edward Sharpe, Cut Copy and more!
Published on February 26th, 2014 | Jonny Abrams
The best of this week’s singles can’t wait to dive into your ears and have a good swim about, depositing warmth and benevolence on their merry way around your interior – or, for our Stateside readers, your American interior (that rather tenuous reference should make sense very soon)…
Amatorski – “Hudson”
Glacial, brooding and oddly staggered electro-pop from Belgium that welcomes aboard some ominously parping horns as it reaches its conclusion. Sweet vocal too. Smart stuff.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Cut Copy – “We Are Explorers”
Deliciously clanging electronics, weirdly whirring filler noises and manipulatedly gurgling vocals somehow converge into the kind of laid-back, melodic groove that we’ve come to expect from this Melbourne three-piece. It’s a neat enough trick to bear repeating.
Rocksucker says: Four Quails out of Five!
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros – “Let’s Get High! On Love!”
Blimey, Sharpe’s really quirked up his act, hasn’t he? This is like The Bees by way of Ariel Pink. Hats off, it’s a splendid reinvention jam-packed with surprises – and it’s flippin’ epic. So much so that we’re resorting to mild cursing trying to describe it.
Single of the week.
Rocksucker says: Four and a Half Quails out of Five!
Emperor Yes – “The End of the World”
Sounds a bit like The Polyphonic Spree channelling ELO through the unlikely medium of wibbly retro synths. That’ll do us, alright.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Gruff Rhys – “American Interior”
His Super Furriness continues to chime the piano from which his almost impossibly luxurious 2011 album Hotel Shampoo was hewn, on a windswept, minor-key number featuring Flaming Lips drummer (and confirmed SFA nut) Kliph Scurlock.
Last year’s relatively tame second Neon Neon LP represented arguably the first misstep of Rhys’s illustrious career, but on this evidence his forthcoming American Interior album/book/film/app looks set to follow his many triumphs into not just our hearts but our very DNA, such is this man’s way with both melody and lyrics.
Would be single of the week if not for the astounding Edward Sharpe number above.
Rocksucker says: Four and a Half Quails out of Five!
Jungle – “Busy Earnin'”
Ice-cool electro-funk-disco-what-have-you, fizzing over with rainbow synths and making a damn catchy nuisance of itself. Apparently Jungle are a ‘buzz’ band – and you know what, we’d buzz them into our flat.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Merchandise – “Begging for Your Life/In the City Light”
Trippy stuff, this – textural elements flutter around the mix in a manner reminiscent of Caribou’s Up in Flames album as Caribou, but there’s a steady rock beat propping up mad, echo-laden riffing like 13-era Blur. That’s some blend, and we happen to be susceptible to those kinds of charms.
Rocksucker says: Four Quails out of Five!
Quiet Marauder – “Accidental Voyeur”
Really rather odd, this barmy little trot – and you know, sometimes that’s enough. A damn sight more entertaining than all the NME haircut bands put together.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Ramona Lisa – “Arcadia”
Takes a while to get going, this one, then eventually unfurls into something not unlike Julia Holter taking extreme artistic liberties with “Walking in the Air” from The Snowman. It’s mysterious, otherworldly, beguiling, all those sorts of things – you’d never guess from this that she’s written for Beyoncé.
Rocksucker says: Four Quails out of Five!
Real Estate – “Crime”
Lovely, warm, lightly dissonant jangling à la Kurt Vile, with agreeably understated vocals weaving a nice milky texture through it all. Weren’t these guys supposed to be emo or something?
Ah no, we’re thinking of Sunny Day Real Estate. On this evidence, we much prefer plain old Real Estate and their blissful summer-pop.
Rocksucker says: Four Quails out of Five!
Shy Nature – “Lie Back”
Ummed and ahed at the more familiar-sounding aspects of it, but it’s got an energising warmth to it that we couldn’t ignore or, ultimately, resist.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
Those were the best of this week’s singles. Join us next week, won’t you?
Related Articles
Review: Gruff Rhys – American Interior
Review: Real Estate – Atlas
The Best of This Week’s Singles: Ensh, Younghusband, September Girls and more!
WATCH: trailer for Gruff Rhys American Interior film/book/album with Flaming Lips drummer
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.
