Posts
New songs by Paul McCartney
About a half year old and there is already an expanded version of 'The Boys From Dungeon Lane'. Why? It is not as if I'm going to buy the cd for these three songs (and a remix). As the songs are there, let's listen to them anyway in this singles section. All three songs would not have been among the best songs on the album. There are very good songs on the album, which I like as a whole as well. Two could have been swapped for some of the more quiet songs on "Dungeon Lane", without altering the overall quality of the album. Can Paul McCartney write a bad song? No, but certainly has written songs that did not resonate within me, like his best songs have and even more than that. 'City Fox' is an acoustic song and it is the quiet one. Acoustic should not be taken totally literally, as it isn't. The acoustic guitar does play the lead role though, with a keyboard with a Medieval sound. The song fits nicely into a long row of more delicate McCartney songs. 'One Night Stand' is louder. It starts out as an acoustic song though, with a nice riff played on an acoustic guitar. In the chorus the band comes in, led by a piano. Next up is a part where the electric guitar kicks in, quite loudly (a post chorus?) and then we go back to square one. There's a lot going on in 'One Night Stand', making it a good addition to the album. 'Chelsea Boots' is the final new track. Again, a rocking song. Of the three this is the least interesting song. The final addition is a remix of the most fun song on "Dungeon Lane", 'Home To Us', the duet with Ringo Starr. Don't ask me where it is different. It sounds the same to me. 84 and 86, this year at least and both still rocking like there is no tomorrow. I hope they will for a few years more.
Following the blues with Mia Boostrom in the lead role singing 'You’ve Got To Choose', comes the more country-rocking Might Just Be My Day sung by Brad Goff. It shows a totally different side of Sean Coleman Project. Think the more rocking country songs of Eagles with Bernie Leadon still in the line up and all those bands from the mid-70s like The Outlaws. The result is a song that contains fine guitar work, a solid rhythm section and a warm organ filling the holes in the background. No, you will not hear something new where the sound is concerned but a song as comfy as that old chair that has formed itself exclusively to your body. On top of it all are the great background vocals and that all makes it just our day.
Untitled (Halo) is a band from Los Angeles working towards the release of its self-titled debut album on 6 November. Easy Rider is a song with two faces. The first half is a dreampop song, with singer Ariana Mamnoon singing as if from a dream. The music behind is tight with a drum sound that could well be electronic, especially the high-hat, with the rhythm guitar playing the deep strings only. In the chorus a heavily distorted guitar comes in to support the heartache, but well-mixed into the background. Next up, is a sequence that Personal Trainer is good as as well. Then it's time for face two. Untitled (Halo) simply explodes. Ariana Mamnoon sort of disappears in the shoegaze outing the band presents. I'll stop here, as the band has more surprises in store and why give everything away here?
It seems that I listened to Veronica Falls for the first time in 2013 when I ran a substantial fever. Having recovered a few days later, I still liked the album 'Waiting For Something To Happen'. After that album the band broke up and I sort of forgot about them, including the album. Come 2026 and the debut album of Veronica Falls gets a full scale re-release with bonus track and all. One of these tracks is Starry Eyes. Light-hearted, poppy and bouncy like a young puppy or kitten. The song has a lightness as all first songs by a starting band should have. The kind of songs that make band and listeners believe that the band is about to conquer the world. Starry Eyes has that kind of freshness in it. Is it the best song ever made? No, of course not, but that is beside the point. Veronica Falls shows what it was capable of in this indie-pop-rock track and if my memory serves me well, they did deliver on that early promise, only to break up too soon.
Time flies and when one gets older, it seems to go faster and faster. So it happens that I realise that it is over twenty years since Editors entered my life with 'The Back Room', that dark sounding album, that I never really found my way into. My then collega Cynthia loved it, but with each band, she fell out of love with the second album. For me, a single like 'Papillon' aside, I found my way into Editors only in the mid 2010s. Today it comes and goes, I notice. With Seriously the band enters my good side. The song is upbeat, has a strong, elementary central riff and an acoustic guitar helping the rhythm along in a positive way. The light and the shade goes all through the up tempo rocking song. This is the kind of song by Editors that I like more than average.
In March of this year Kant debuted on this blog with the single 'Qualm', a stand alone 7" single. Today the Asschaffenburg, Germany band returns with Android Don't Serve, as single announcing album 'Echoes Of Unfortunate Times' (23 October). The song rocks like it is 2026 with elements coming right out of (psychedelic) classic rock's playbook. The song is straightforward in its tempo in the first part, but like in classic rock tracks/singles like 'Question' and 'Woman From Tokio' something changes half way. At the time I couldn't wait for the song to return to the rock part. Today, I love how the nood changes and the tension is built up. Android Don't Serve serves its listeners that kind of tension. I doubt whether the song is able to receive the same reverence as Moody Blues and Deep Purple received with their famous hit singles, it does deserve it. Android Don't Serve manages to rock out seriously and keep the interlude more than interesting. A six and a half minute modern rock song it is.
This single is lucky. I was listening to it for the first time and about to decide to strike it, when my wife came home from work and I went downstairs. Putting it on once again two days later, something had changed. I was less in a hurry and heard how the song slowly but surely expanded into something very different from how it started out. Look Alive is an alternative rock song, with a sludgy sound. Things are dirty. The singer does not try to sound neat, the guitars are dirty, as if dragged through the thickest mud imaginable. On both sides of the stereo equation! The drums and bass keep chugging the song forward, where the guitars seem stuck in place. Look Alive in that sense is a good title. The Minor Thoughts are a duo from Nashville, Ryan Ervin and Andy Snyder. The overall sound is all but a duo. But Nashville? Tars and feathers can never be far away for this duo.
I think I have one The Datsuns album in my collection. It must be from the mid 00s somewhere. The fact that I'm not sure says enough. Today I'm listening to a new single, Run From The Sun, that announces the band's eighth album, 'Moonstruck Man', to be released on 13 November. The New Zealanders, with a strong connection to Sweden these days, released a dark sounding track, with a dirty sounding riff, accompanied by a higher sounding vocal. The whole has a nice groove and the song rocks. Things can be this simple to describe a song.
Belgian band Fence returns to the blog with Awakenings. A song that shows that notes and phrases may sound strange at first listening but when the song progresses turn out to fit like a glove. They are even able to harmonise with other quirky notes and chords. Fence manages to make it all sound so effortlessly simple, while I wouldn't have a clue where to start should I be forced to play along. Add an unexpected stop/start here and there and vocal "oohs" that take the fun even higher and it becomes clear awakenings is not your every day single/song. Although it is easy to lob the song into the postpunk basket, to me it comes closer to the music the band Field Music made in the past. Also quirky songs but when all is said and done have a heavy The Beatles influence. Listen closely and you will find some of that in Awakenings as well. Album 'Nobody Gives A Fuck' was released this Friday,
We end this singles post with a hard rock band from the Rochester, New York that holds back for a long time, building up tension in this single and then some more. Singer (and guitarist) Sean Roa sings with a voice that could be described as a deeper Ozzie Osbourne combined with a few grunge singers, Laney Staley up front. This combination makes The Slick And The Dead a very dark sounding track. Although a trio, there are more sounds than a trio can account for. That makes the song more interesting for sure. The accented, muted power chords give the song its totally own vibe. The explosions in sound create the antidote in the right places. The combination of sounds and energy make The Slick And The Dead an extremely strong single. Album 'Doomsayer' follows on 4 December.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
