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Rats. Suzanne Vega
My
only Suzanne Vega record is from the 1980s with 'Luka' on it. Based on
this recollection nothing prepared me for Rats. Suzanne Vega is rocking
like there's no tomorrow. In fact she is in competition with several
2020s alternative, postpunk bands. She wrote the song with her guitarist
and musical director Gerry Leonard. It is such a direct song, with
guitar lines all over the place. The bass is very in your face and
there's this Farfisa organ that is almost irritating to listen to, as it is supposed to sound. Vega herself seems to be hanging on for dear life
with this tempo. She manages very well, thank you. What I can't tell
from a distance is whether the Rats are a metaphor for everything
happening in politics in the U.S. these days. I can imagine it is. The
song is direct enough to be an allegorical protest song. For all I know
Suzanne Vega is making music like Rats for years. I am very positively
surprised. Rats its a great postpunk rock song.
To
my surprise, I reviewed an album by Peter Perrett on this blog,
'Humanworld', in 2018. There's an older Erwin Zijleman one as well.
Sorry, but I have no recollection of it at all. Disinfectant took a
short while for me to catch on but after that I was hooked. The song
starts slow and Peter Perrett's voice is not exactly without wear and
tear of the past 45 years. Musically, the song takes off in the first
chorus and never looks back. Disinfectant rocks and with that no little.
If I have to compare Disinfectant to anything it is David Bowie 'Boys
Keep Swinging'. The lead guitar is so fantastic on both. The kind that
you want to keep going and going and stops before things become too much
at some point, making you crave for more that isn't there. If anything
with this single Perrett shows that age is something in the head of the beholder.
Older rockers can still create fantastic songs, as Disinfectant shows to
the world.
Band
of Skulls is dead long live Sunflower Bean? I did not see that one
coming. Sunflower Bean self-produced for the first time and throws the
world a loud bone called Shake. There already is a 'Death By Diamonds
And Pearls', otherwise the title song could have qualified to become it.
Where I wrote in my 2018 review of 'Twentytwo In Blue': "Somewhere under
that sweet-voiced Ms. (Julia) Cumming there can be hints of danger in
the music.", on the Shake EP that danger is in the front, middle, last
row and the balcony. In the first three songs Sunflower Bean goes more
than full out. Only in song four 'Serial Killer' the tempo goes down a
little, the noise considerably so. The toughness remains though. It
may be a ballad, the in your face approach will fool many who have a
totally different concept of balladry. It is always nice to be surprised
and Sunflower Bean has done so. To think I almost did not listen to the
EP. Boy, am I glad I did. If I were the band I would stick with
presenting the unfiltered version of itself. It suits Sunflower Bean quite
well.
Detroit?
That is MC5, The White Stripes and Motown of course. And since today
The Dogs. I understand that the band has reformed with original members
Mary Kay Dodson on bass and backing vocals and Loren Molinare on lead vocals and guitars. They are joined in 2024 by
Rob Klonel on drums. With Secret Place The Dogs have a comeback single
like they should be. It rocks right into your face. The trio dare to
tone down to just a tough bass, drums and muted rhythm guitar, before
exploding into the rock monster The Dogs also is. Secret Place is the
announcement of a career spanning album called 'Unleashed' with 24 songs
on it. Rum Bar released the album on 18 October. Secret Place reminds
me of 'Kick Out The Jams', MC5's signature song. The Dogs just keep
things whole and do a great job at it too. Secret Place is a delicious
dirty rocker of a song.
Three
years ago The Daylilies were on this blog with 'Stockholm Syndrome', a
release of Justine Couvault's Red on Red label. Over time more and more
bands surface on other labels, after Justine's demise in 2023. With
Pétillant The Daylilies return with a great pop-rock single. The single
has a golden melody and singer Laura England Klain really is determined
to show what she's capable of. Many 80s singer can be put to history
when new singers have voices like England Klain's. Pétillant is the kind
of song that has a varied yet great sound. With an organ that reminds
people like me who lived through new wave of songs like 'Oliver's Army',
'Just What I Needed' or 'Marliese' and a guitar that is tough enough to
come from any decade between the late 70s and today. Pétillant means
bubbly, as in sparkling wine. The theme of the song is coming out of Covid and
playing together again. This single really sounds like the joy I felt
when were in a room once again making music, shield between at first us or not.
Another
new name on this blog. I had never heard of SASSYHIYA until an
email dropped into my box a few weeks ago. With the title Boat Called
Predator I did not expect a rap song but what else? It turns out that
the single is a pretty direct indie rock song by a female singer.
SASSYHIYA ("Sassy Hiya") formed in London by singers and songwriters
Kathy Wright, vocals, guitar and Helen Skinner, vocals, bass, who are
partners in life as well. Together they write the songs. So far two EPs
have been released. Over time they were joined by Pablo Paganotto on
drums and Neiloy Mookherjee on guitar. On 8 November the debut album
'Take You Somewhere' is released. While on holiday in western Scotland
Kathy and Helen were overtaken by a trailer with a boat called
'Predator' on it, leading to this energised song. At first listen Boat
Called Predator appears very straightforward. Listen more closely and
you'll hear the backing vocals, the guitar lines Neiloy Mookherjee adds
to the song, the little handclaps and the little
mysterious additions of sounds here and there. It makes for great
listening.
Believe
it or not but just like Suzanne Vega The Cure makes it debut on this
blog. It's last album is from 2008, four years before the start of this
blog. You will find the band as a reference all over the place, but that
is different. All over the summer it was clear that something was
brewing, but summer is not the right season for The Cure to release
albums in, isn't it? 'Songs From A Lost World' is slated for 1 November, when the last leaves are falling from the trees and the last of autumn's flowers have withered.
Alone has been given to us a few weeks ago. It is a nearly seven
minutes song and just before the 3.30 minutes Robert Smith comes in with
his characteristic voice. The instrumental part is a huge affair. An
enormous layer of synths is showered over us, with underneath the drums
pounding away, an electric guitar playing its notes and a bass that is
seriously low. A distorted guitar part, piano chords that move through
the thickness like a cool breeze on a warm summer's evening. The Cure
goes for the big effect and succeeds as far as I'm concerned. When
returning on record after so many years you have to come in with a bang.
The only valid question I can ask here, why does it have to sound like as if
Pink Floyd came back together again?
Even
more surprising is that Eric Clapton makes his debut as well. Having released
his first commercial single in 1963 or 64 with The Yardbirds, that is special isn't it? Now
Clapton has not released a lot in the past years, I think, There already is a
new album, 'Meanwhile', since late September. Totally unnoticed by me by the
way. This single was announced about the release date of 'Meanwhile'. It
is an album containing six "previously unheard tracks" and eight
singles. I suppose that One Woman is a song in the first category. We
hear Clapton moving routinely through a reggae-ish song, that continues
satisfactorily without rocking any boats. Like many tracks on his solo
albums did in the 70s and 80s and beyond. To be honest, I would have
let it pass me by, had Clapton been on this blog before. But also because One Woman is a nice
track. It is far from bad. The playing is impeccable. It simply never
comes truly alive. My conclusion is that Eric Clapton doesn't want to
offend anyone and is in total pleasing mode. The only hint at danger is a
darker sounding guitar somewhere in the middle, to be mixed away as
fast as possible, as if producer Simon Climie discovered it too late. Of
course, Clapton's solo playing is good to listen to. Even in a track
like One Woman listening to him play is a pleasure. To end more
positively. The longer the song plays out, the more I get into its mood,
so maybe things are not as average as they seem at first listen.
Rode
Maan begint met gesproken woord, zoals alleen Ferry Heine dat kan. Onder
hem een (bas?)gitaar akkoord, maar algauw valt de band in met een
gejaagd ritme. Het klinkt allemaal zeer bekend in de oren. Dit is De
Kift in vorm. Wel valt het op dat de Zaankanters niet proberen te
pleasen met Rode Naam. Dit draait om de tekst: "de man met een wilde
droom op zijn tong". Het eindigt zelfs a capella. In de tussentijd drijft
de band zanger Ferry Heine op. Hij klinkt net zo gejaagd als de muziek.
Haal ik het einde van dit verhaal?, lijkt hij zich af te vragen. In de
aankondiging staat dat De Kift muzikaal terug gegaan is naar de begin
jaren. Gezien de elementaire manier waarop met name de sologitaar
klinkt, kan ik daar in mee gaan. Dat is een typisch De Kift gitaar
progressie. Ondanks dat er een aantal zeer verschillende instrumenten te
horen zijn, is op een bepaalde manier Rode Maan een kaal nummer, dat
heel veel energie uitstraalt. De rust van het einde is bijna paradoxaal.
Rode Maan maakt heel benieuwd naar 'Niemandsland' het 13e album van De
Kift dat in november uit gaat komen.
I got to know Baby I Love you in 1969, when Andy Kim (1946) scored his only hit in NL with the song. It is much older of course being recorded by The Ronettes in 1963. So I'm a bit surprised to hear a 2024 version from an Italian band called Beatersband. You can't really fail with a song like that and the self-styled punkrock'n'roll band doesn't. Beatersband plans to have a career to turn well-known songs into its own style. Baby I Love You gets a guitar, bass, drums treatment, but at heart is just a nice song. It remains this even when punkrock'n'rolled. Nothing more but certainly nothing less.
And
then I remembered a little something. After the chorus of Baby I Love
You, Andy Kim does something that makes the sugary song "more punk" than
Beatersband's. Kim's "na-na-na-na-na" is really well done.
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