This month’s round-up includes Mancunian rock, weird folk and… Dutch soul. But is any of it any good?
With bands like M83 and School of Seven Bells being hyped to the rafters, it looks like the lush dream-pop that Ladytron have been plying for years is suddenly the indie zeitgeist. And Tomorrow (****, 2 Mar) is [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘singles round-up’
March 6, 2009
March in singles: Dutch soul anyone?
February 4, 2009
February in singles: Morrissey, Guns ‘N’ Roses, and some non-oldies too
My singles round-up column for The Skinny:
Boy-girl-boy trio Sky Larkin make raw, in-yer-face garage rock, but it feels like there’s something missing from Beelines (***, Out Now). That is, until it dares to go all discordant and nuts in the 30-second outro. As I’ve said before in this here column, the word ‘epic’ gets bandied [...]
January 4, 2009
January in singles: Not-so-new names for a new year
We might have a fresh, shiny new year on our hands, but there was a distinct lack of fresh, shiny new talent among the pile of plastic I had to review for my monthly singles column in The Skinny magazine. That’s not to say it was one big ear assault though…
Travis have moved on from [...]
November 24, 2008
November in singles: Better late than never
I’d forgotten to post November’s singles round-up from The Skinny. Must have been the post-traumatic stress disorder associated with exposure to Razorshite…
And November’s single of the month goes to… Razorlight. Sorry, wrong envelope. I meant to pick up the one for ‘Most nauseous, mock-sincere rock ballad of the month’. That one goes to them for [...]
October 6, 2008
October in singles: lad-rock veterans, zingy pop tarts, local upstarts
Another month, another instalment of my singles round-up for The Skinny…
If this was the mid-90s and Oasis were in their pomp, The Shock of the Lightning (**, Out Now) would be an album track at best, and certainly not the lead single from a new album. But that says more about what Oasis have become [...]
September 16, 2008
September in singles: Stopping at England, Iceland, America… and Scotland
This month’s instalment of my singles column for The Skinny. Better late than never.
No-one is averse to a bit of sensual seduction. So when newly-formed Londoners Rock City Sixteen send me a 7″ of Lunettes Noires Pour Nuits Blanche (****, 8 Sep) in appropriate black and white design with creative press release, I am easily [...]
August 5, 2008
August in singles: Punks, divas, has-beens and a will-be
[Nacional: recipients of August's single of the month award. But there is no award... more like an accolade actually.]
Punk is all the rage – on the evidence of the first two singles this month anyway. The King Blues are a London act who project a renagade, guerilla-gigging image. Let’s Hang The Landlord (*, 4 Aug), [...]
July 8, 2008
July in singles: a bored actress, Pammy’s ex, and the next Arcade Fire?
[Attic Lights: recipients of July single of the month]
To look at bespectacled Glaswegian Ross Clark, you might expect him to be a modest, sensitive, home-spun folkster. But, au contraire, Silversword (****, Out Now) is a raucous, joyous, full-band-with-horns blitzkrieg, taking the populist bent of The Fratellis and filtering out all the bad stuff. Paul [...]
June 5, 2008
June in singles: reviewed by The Twilight Sad
[Images: John Lewis]
Instead of my usual ramblings on the month’s singles for The Skinny magazine, this time we decided to let someone else do the slagging. The Twilight Sad are one of my favourite bands of the past year, and even produced The Skinny’s album of 2007. I met them before their gig at Tigerfest [...]
