Bicornes. Love them or hate them, they’re everywhere this week. Whether you like it fore-and-aft à la the Duke of Wellington, or prefer Napoleon’s sideways style, with plume or without, cockaded or cocked up, there’s something for everyone. A bicorne is, essentially, an old hat. This introduction is, essentially, annoying and obstruse, but old hattage is what I’ve got for you in this bundle of the sublime and the ridiculous.
MIA: Paper Planes *****
Obviously, o discerning reader, you have had this song ever since Kala came out sodding ages ago. Discreetly tucked away towards the end of a bewilderingly brilliant album, ‘Paper Planes’ has been screaming out to be a single. But over a year on? There are only two reasons for this; to justifiably top end-of-year polls of the tunes of 2008, or to give us amazing remixes. This release is awash with them and they’re great fun, a godsend to uninspired indie DJs. But it’s hard to top the original; besides its flippantly political lyrics, devastatingly simple structure and ace sampling, the tremolo in the background instantly transports you to a place of otherworldly calm and sunshine. This deserves to be number one everywhere, for ever, but top 5 in the US ain’t bad for starters.
Kooks: Sway *
I saw these guys supporting The Thrills in 2004 and thought I quite liked Luke Pritchard’s voice. But then, von Papen thought it would be quite a good idea to make Hitler Chancellor of Germany in 1933. You can’t blame this song for sounding like The Kooks in general, so I’ll leave aside the turgid, lumpen production and troglodyte rhythms. But when it sounds exactly like the Kooks’ previous song ‘I Want You’ with the chorus chopped off and the ‘edgier’ elements removed, you have to start wondering if capital punishment isn’t such a bad idea after all.
Ting Tings: Be The One **
She can’t sing, their name is execrable, their album at once forgettable and unforgiveable. But Ting Tings are genuinely a great singles band. ‘That’s Not My Name’ sounded cheap and nasty but its nagging riff, ballsy hook and bubblegum-pop coda were far better than this band had any right to be. ‘Great DJ’ and ‘Fruit Machine’ had similar character. ‘Be The One’, however, seems to fly in the face of everything they had going for them. Where their earlier hits were crude, tinny, and impossibly catchy, this single is pleasant, melodious and totally non-descript. Its synthetic chimes are all warm and fuzzy; her voice is borderline pretty, but the spark is missing. If they survive to a second album, this unlikeable band might just combine their assets and come up with a classic. This is not it.
CSS: Move ****
The first record was savage, scruffy, superb. The second is slick, shiny, so-so. But the singles are incredible. CSS’ main asset, like The Concretes before Victoria Bergsman left, is that about three-quarters of the world would give anything to sleep with Lovefoxxx’s voice. ‘Move’ is the greatest aerobics soundtrack ever to come out of Brasil, mixing faux-naïve lyricism with a propulsive beat and languorous chorus. It sounds like a really nice shade of yellow. Metronomy’s remix on iTunes seems to be an entirely different song; Cut Copy’s is a sleazier, heavier affair that would be perfect to drive around London to at night. In a sped-up, neon-blur style video. CSS’ own track is the one to actually dance to.
MGMT: Kids ****
Like both the other ‘good’ songs out this week, this is a hat you should have been wearing for months now. It even surfaced in a demo version on the ‘Time To Pretend’ EP, undeniably their best release to date. The only conceivable reason to release this now is to offer us a radio edit that cuts out about a minute of this over-long, throbbing masterpiece. The Soulwax remix is a train wreck; the Train Wreck remix is downright lousy, and the single prunes just thirty seconds off the album version. But I still have to give it four stars because its juicy synth riff and elongated eee sounds are clearly the sound of evil happy genius.
Snow Patrol: Take Back The City **
Snow Patrol are clearly really really nice people and do not deserve the punishment meted out to the like of Kooks. And there is nothing wrong with good honest Scottish/Irish pub indie. Unless it’s Malcolm Middleton. This is, at any rate, a lot better than Malcolm Middleton, though it never threatens to hit the song-writing highs of early breakthroughs ‘Run’ and ‘Spitting Games’. The first line of the verse sounds exactly like something else and it’s driving me crazy but I can’t remember what. So I’ll let them off. It’s also the best thing about the song. The pre-chorus is picked out by focused stabs of slightly dirty guitars, and the chorus is distinguished by the drawn out syllables and close harmonies. But neither leap out at you, leaving the opening line of each verse as close to a defining hook as this song gets. Uninspired.
Top Of The Ox: local tune of the week.
This modern, danceable music is all very well. But what about when the party’s over and the red wine won’t come out of your shirt and it’s cold and damp and your cat just got run over? What good will electro-pop be to your broken heart then? None, that’s what. At such times, you need to fall back on some guy with a guitar. Enter Ross Cole, an Oxford music student with a voice like single malt whiskey and a finger-picking style with a touch of Bert Jansch about it. This Wadstock regular has a new EP, featuring his signature song, ‘Midnight Graffiti’. It rips off early Tom McRae and consists of Cole misanthropically grumbling about the state of young people these days whilst occasionally dropping in an irresistible ‘60s lick. It is an absolutely brilliant, meandering tune with a menacing, bluesy verse and a lilting major-key chorus and as usual you can get it here.
Send your suggestions for tune of the week to oskar.coxjensen[at]chch.ox.ac.uk.
