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Tropic Morning News. The National
The National and me? Well, it's not a very happy combination so far. Matt Berninger's solo album is a totally different matter. I've played it so often during the pandemic. And here's the band's new single, Tropical Morning News. For fans perhaps an average song, as things often are with bands around for a few decades. The song is not so much exciting, as it has an optimistic pulse driving it forward. With a drum almost as a programmed one. It makes Berninger work hard and still he manages to sound as if he lies reclining on a pool chair in the shade, cocktail in hand. The lead guitar is a nervous affair, like parts of the rest of the song. Even the longheld notes of the synth do not relax me. Only Berninger does. If this is the standard for the upcoming album, 'First Two Pages Of Frankenstein', The National may count me in, for the first time.
More music from New Zealand. Island Time is a song from a singer who in the video seems to have left her Latin American country for the Pacific Ocean's larger islands. Island Time is a song so relaxed that it almost gets me passed the point of listening to it in a serious way and making me miss how nice it actually is. An acoustic guitar leads the way against a slow but in sound modern rhythm. Erny Belle sings, multi-tracked over the music, lending a touch of mystery to her singing. A country pedal steel guitar sounds totally out of place, until I realise that the islands she sings about could be Hawaii of course and things fall into place. She has signed with Flying Nun Records after her self-released album 'Venus Is Home'. How else would I ever learn of New Zealand singers and bands? Once again a totally different singer-songwriter but very pleasant all the same.
Bittersweet
meets rock with a psychedelic twist. Kiss And Tell, Kid Gulliver's new
single, is simply delightful. It mixes the 1960s, say for arguments sake
'Eight Miles High' or 'Mr. Spaceman', with everything coming after it
right up to The Bangles' version of 'Hazy Shade Of Winter'. Put it all
in a blender and there's Kiss And Tell. This single really holds it all
in 1960s length as well. Simone Berk sings it with a deadpan voice
letting the lead guitar and psychedelic elements in the song do the
emotions. "Did you really think there wasn't a price to pay", was never
sung so neutral. The combination makes both shine and the single
winning. Listen more closely and little melodies creep up from behind
the loud lead guitar taking the attention at first listen. The Roger
McGuinn like solo really is the icing on this cake. A great song Kiss
And Tell is.
The
longest single title in years? It may well be Lana del Rey has won that
title. Of all the new singers of the last say decade, she's the only
one of who I nearly have all albums. A new song lands on welcome ground.
Listening to Did You ... for the first time, the song does not really
get to me. Too familiar, and perhaps too much of the sad girl side of
Del Rey. The surprise comes towards the end when an orchestra is flown
in and lifts the song, sadness and all. With Did You ... Lana del Rey
becomes even more a 50s singer. The nostalgia truly drips of the song.
Production and sound wise this can never be a 50s recording, in
atmosphere and conception it is though. This song scores high on my
'Tammy' meter. Listening a second time, I already know that Lana de Rey
will get to me once again. Do I have enough of her kind of songs? Yes,
of course. Will I own more soon? Most likely. This single is beautiful.
It's almost like clockwork, a new Shame album. If I remember correctly, the band is one month late with its third album, 'Food Worms', out on 24 February. To compensate here's Sixpack. The new single is an eclectic affair. Okay, more songs of Shame are. In this song the guitarist has discovered the wah wah pedal and uses it abundantly. To great fun for all. Singer Charlie Steen is more present than ever before, smack in the middle and up front. Just like he will be on stage. Sixpack is an energetic affair, with a short psychedelic interlude before the band goes nuts. The wah wah flies all over the place, multiple times, while the rest is wacking away. This song will really work during the festival season. No one will wind up with a sixpack, more with a beer belly but who cares. Fun is fun. I can't help hearing the riff of 'School's Out' in my head though. As I wrote, fun is fun.
More
from New Zealand. Duo Surf Friends, Brad Coley and Peter Westmoreland,
is working towards the release of a new album, 'Sonic Waves' on 17
March. With its new single Surf Friends operates in the indie segment of
rock, adding a light touch of psychedelia to the mix. without laying it
on too thick. They present the song Something Real and do not try to obfuscation it. This song has an optimism to it that can work
infectuous. The singing is somewhat dreamy, while at the same time it
has a link with the Doug Yule vocals on 'The Velvet Underground'. With
that band the main influence for the song, perhaps the band, I can't
tell as this is my initiation, is mentioned. From there alternative rock
bands from the 90s enter. Think Buffalo Tom or The Lemonheads. The pop
element in the form of a singalong factor is taken care of as well. A
nice introduction Something Real is.
Yes, please, I'd like one all right. Men of a certain rock (once again) and how! One More Drink is a punkrock single without overdoing it. The melody is great and the guitar lines all worked out in a nice, mature way. Just like the vocal harmonies and the dynamics are. In the video all take turns at taking a swig of something. Well deserved at that. One More Drink has a truckload of energy the band shares with the whole world. Yes, I have heard it all before in one form or another but a good song like this is always welcome. Jumping up and down is simple mandatory. Another one, please, sir.
Only
two weeks to go and 'In Between Borderlines' is released. Based on the
singles of the past say two years, this must be a feast. Belgian band
Ramkot is rocking out, loud. (The two consecutive one mores is a
coincidence of fate.) There's nothing subtle about One More. The riffs
fly around my head, the energy fills my room. Try to type a review when
One More is playing. Keeping my head still takes a real, real effort.
Brothers Tim and Tom Leyman and Hannes Cuyvers are rocking alright. It
is not just rocking. The band knows how to find the extra melodies and
some extra effects in a song as well. This makes One More all the more
interesting to listen to. Ramkot does not take the easy way out. Drums
and a huge bass is the bases over which the guitar(s) and voice(s) can
do their play. Together they win this listener over easily.
Blondshell or Sabrina Teitelbaum, enters this blog for the second time with a single. This indie rocker is a melancholy affair. Joy is not near by in Joiner. This is an introspective song, thoughtful. Expect a Fleetwood Mac, a mix between Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks, element, between pop and indie. You will not read me writing this is an exceptionally good song. It is very interesting though, as Teitelbaum manages to touch on the right tone in Joiner. For a new generation she might just be what it needs to become more interested in indie kind of rock music. For an old hand like me, it sounds too familiar to impress. Blasé, no far from, I'd say, otherwise you would not be reading thins. Blondshell adds a lot of nice elements to her single and they do catch my ear. On 7 April the album sees the light of day.
We end this week with the light pop of Gramercy Arms, the ever changing New York City collective around Dave Derby. In Tricky Love Stuff you find reference to pop songs from around 1985 and a lyric that brings you back to Derby's high school days when love was oh so tricky. The song has a light touch while also the feeling that comes with thinking about times long gone, in the realisation they will never return (and sometimes they better not). Gramercy Arms finds exactly the right tone to accompany the feeling. The electric guitars that chime in give Tricky Love Stuff a darker undertone underscoring the uncertainty encountered during adolescence. In the music some faint hints at the unexpectedly successful singles of The Kinks in 1983 and bands like Lloyd Cole and the Commotions that came by soon after. That dreamy melancholy is very present here. Tricky Love Stuff is a nice song bringing back nice musical memories on the side. Expect the album 'Deleted Scenes' on 3 March.
Wout de Natris
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