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Puppet Show. Beck Black
In the fall Beck
Black debuted on this blog with her single "Gotta Get Back To My Baby'.
Today she returns with a nice pop rocking song. The music as it were walks
through the history of the at least 40 years of pop music. Beck Black
plays the strings as if Depeche Mode and Howard Jones still need a push
in the back, yet with an intenseness that comes with time. The pop element of the song
has an 80s touch to it as well. Tears For Fears comes to mind here, but
from there things become modern. The huge rhythm of the song is
certainly 21st century. Drummer Adam Alt plays an important role on
Puppet Show. The guitar slides in and out with long held notes and a
huge sound in the oh-oh part of the chorus. The keyboard riff is not
more than a few notes but nestle in the brain immediately. After 'Gotta
Get Back To My Baby' Beck Black delivers another strong single. A singer
to watch.
Dream
Wife can be found on this blog for quite some time. It's new album
'Social Lubrication' seems to be out already. It passed me by. I must
have seen somewhere that there's a new single, as it is on this enormous
list that keeps growing and growing. With Who Do You Wanna Be the U.K.
band adds another nice punky rocker to its repertoire. The kind of song
that simultaneously goes against the grain and pleases. It is not an
immediately pleasing song, as nothing is smooth as in a traditional pop
song. At the same time it has all the elements these smooth songs have,
played in a different way with a combination of notes that move towards
the less pleasant. Singer Rakel Mjöll does the same, singing in a punk
style and purring like a cat on your lap, but digging in the nails softly
but surely. It all falls totally to my good side. Who Do You Wanna Be
rocks in a great way.
Fully
paying respect where it is due but listening to Genya Ravan, it is like hearing
my (long-diseased) grandmother punkrocking out. And not just rocking. The
rhythm is like it is culled from an early Iggy record. add to that an
Aretha backing vocals, all sung by Genya Ravan. Fool For A Pretty Face
is the most convincing mix of punk with soul that I've ever heard. The
mix of the song is at times as dark as 'Raw Power's'. The song sounds
faintly familiar. On You Tube I ran into a mid 80s version of the song
by Steve Marriot, ex-Small Faces and Humble Pie. A good one, but Genya
is winning big time. I can't stop being amazed how successfully she
manages to blend all these different influences into a successful mix.
Fool For A Pretty face rocks big time yet is so extremely soulful and
swinging. The funny thing is, I think this song could have been a 60s
ska song. It has that feel as well. Was it? I just don't know. For now I
have a version to really dig. Keep up the good work Ms. Ravan.
Some
songs start out sounding so fresh. I was all ears from the very first
seconds to I Thought I Understood. Despite the fact that the singer
starts singing with a doom and gloom kind of 80s voice, this is a fun
song to listen to. The clear solo notes in combination with the rhythm
guitar, bass and drums provide a fine bed for the noisy guitar
meandering throughout the song and that dark voice. Founded in 2009 by
Mancunian Craig Dyer, The Underground Youth now lives in Berlin. Its
upcoming album, 'Nostalgia's Glass' will be its eleventh. All previous
ten have passed me by. Not the first single of the new one. Reading up,
it's clear that The Underground Youth is not so young any more but
certainly has been underground as far as I was concerned. Fans of 80s doom
will certainly find their way into this song.
Who
won in the mid 90s, Oasis or Blur? For me there was no contest: Oasis
with a one second knock out. In 2023 there is no Oasis for a long time
and off an on there is Blur. The band is back with a new single and an
album soon to follow. At first encounter I had a very strong been-there-done-that feeling and not just in a Blur sense but also in connection
to other artists. The build up of the song is, despite sounding
familiar, strong. There is a little more going on all through the song, making
it stronger and more impressive all the time. Not even by brilliant changes but by
sheer power and might. Add another and another instrument or pound it
harder, like the drums. The result is that I'm listening to The
Narcissist with renewed interest the whole of the time.
With
Old Summers Melle is slowly becoming an old hand on this blog. Three
singles in a row have made it to the singles section this year. Old
Summers can be qualified under Adult Oriented Rock, like e.g. Fleetwood Mac or Don Henley
were producing in the 1980s, when the record industry still could not perceive that
rock was really here to stay. Even 40 years later. So the sound of this
single sounds familiar to an older hand like me and at the same time
the song holds more modern pop elements that a band like Son Mieux is
tapping into as well. In the lyrics Melle looks back on holidays in
France of his youth, shown in the video as well. When things were
simpler and taken as they came. Melle caught this feeling really well,
in very nice and melodic song. More and more I'm convinced Melle is an
artist to watch.
There's
a lot to like, listening to Closer To Me, the second single of
Amsterdam band Stella, but the description soft grunge? I don't mind
going with it, but to me this is a great pop rock single I'm listening to. To
me Stella is a new name but not so for one of the band's members. Guitarist
Jasmine van der Waals featured on this blog for the first time because I
was present at her graduation party from the Amsterdam conservatory
where she performed twice in fact. I was there because Roeland
Scherff, formally Elenne May's guitarist, graduated also. Stella is musically totally
different from Jasmine's other band, Loupe. The dreampop is not present
here. Stella taps into some Britpop and some American pop with enough
of a rock element to make it a great combination. The similarity is in
the inventive guitar parts that Van der Waals excels in. The second
great feature is the singing, especially when there is a full choir
going at it. There's an EP under way and I'm curious alright.
Making
a band photo could be a challenge for Lusitanian Ghost. With band
members from and/or living in Canada, Sweden and Portugal, it is a costly
affair. Making music across continents is no longer thanks to email and
online and offline software. The song starts with the line "thinking
about life" followed by a lines of associations that I did not see coming
nor could have thought up. Very free mind expansion of, at least
seemingly, unconnected topics. The music reminds me of The Waterboys
from a long time ago. The use of more exotic string instruments from
different countries gives The Long Train a folky feel like Mike Scott's
band around 1990. (I have no idea what he sounds like today.) The rock
element in the chorus, "let it all out", is exactly what happens. In the
verse the band is holding back, creating a nice difference of feel
within the song. Come to think of it, in the verse it's more World
Party, but then did Karl Wallinger not start in The Waterboys?
The
fourth single released by Kate MacLeod as part of her Jean Richie
project and the third to make it to this blog. The Flowers Of Joy is a
song that I associate with music I know from the British folk era around
1970. At the same time it sounds like it could have been written at the
time of Henry XIII or something like it. The song sounds very
traditional, as if against all odds a recording from before the
technique to capture sound existed surfaced. Whether Kate MacLeod does
right to Jean Richie's music, I have no way of telling, I haven't
checked it out, yet. If anything, I can share that The Flowers Of Joy
sounds like it was treated in a totally revered way. It is an extremely
serious song in this rendition, while sparkling deeply within the
restraints of that seriousness. This is beauty caught in digits.
Jane
Willow can be found on this blog many, many times by now but never
being accompanied by a harp. Actually, it is the other way around. Naomi
SV asked Jane to sing on her rendition of the famous song Can't Help
Falling In Love. The duo does the song totally right. There are
no extras to be found in any way. The description voice and harp is
what you get. Jane's voice fits the song, where Naomi plays very
economically. There are no frills or fancy runs. She plays the chords or
notes and even stops playing at all, giving full attention to Jane
Willow's voice. The song, originally recorded by Elvis Presley in 1961
for his movie 'Blue Hawaii', has received many covers. Another worthy
one has been added to a long list. (And no it was not written by Burt
Bacharach, to my surprise.) It all leaves me with one question: Naomi, what is it you are doing on the top of harp during the song? I would guess changing the pitch of the string. Is that correct?
Wout de Natris
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