Gavin Glass and The Holy Shakers are polished musicians with an interesting style that harks back to Ryan Adams in his Whiskeytown days. ‘Skinny Girlfriend’ is a pleasant single, though the jaded manner in which Glass sings gives the impression that he feels a few chances have already passed him by. Hopefully a few more are on the way because this Dublin outift has a lot to offer.
Coldplay have had difficulty making the transition from indie favourites to stadium rock champions. With ‘Fix You’, Chris and chums put aside their plans to emulate U2’s brasher sound and return to what they do best - soft crooning over low piano tinkling. Should break millions of sentimental hearts and shift tons of copies in the process.
You may not have noticed, but Pete Doherty sees himself as a rather troubled young man. And if you haven’t bought into his carefully marketed self-destructive image yet, perhaps the title of his latest single will convince you. ‘Fuck Forever’ is the kind of aphetically cool song that will appeal to droves of adolescents who hate school and think their parents are dinosaurs. In a nutshell: rock‘n’roll.
Are you ready for another massive David Gray hit that gets rotated to death by every mid-afternoon DJ on the planet? Well, we’re quite sure you’re going to be hearing a lot of ‘The One I Love’ when it hits the airwaves later this August. Instantly catchy (if suspiciously like Paul Brady) and featuring one of David’s most uplifting choruses to date, this power-ballad has the potential to be even bigger than ‘Babylon’ was back in 2000.
The Darkness achieved the unthinkable by making hair metal popular again. The Answer, on the other hand, see themselves as more serious rockers and Northern Ireland’s, eh, answer to Led Zeppelin. Full of energy and yelped vocals ‘Keep Believin’ is a confident first step but they’ll need to work on melodies as opposed to white noise if The Answer are going to stand out from the crowd.
Joyzipper got us all excited with their debut album but maybe it didn’t get the kind of widescale acclaim it deserved. On the strength of new single ‘1’, they’ve clearly decided to ditch the weirder aspects of their music to embrace a more commercially digestible sound. That said, ‘1’ is still enjoyable, sunny pop, if unashamedly pitched at a more mainstream market.
Ian Brown, aka King Monkey, has been letting his simian minions down ever since leaving the Stones Roses. Embarrassing posing with Noel Gallagher and shambolic live performances have seen him become a ‘Madchester’ caricature. The annoying thing is that his solo stuff can still be quite decent at times, as ‘All Ablaze’ ably proves. Delivering his lyrics in an understated manner over mellow eastern-inspired rhythms, this single won’t set your stereo on fire, but it won’t make you want to hurl it out the bedroom window either.
We live in an age of musical recycling and the Dead 60s have decided that it’s high time for British ska to be brought back. Like The Ordinary Boys, they’ve taken their inspiration from 2 Tone masters like The Specials and The Selecter and come up with a hugely enjoyable hit in ‘Riot Radio’. With its rankin’ guitars and quick tempo, this is the kind of anthem to inspire a new generation of rude boys and girls.
The Bravery used to sound like their Big Apple compatriots, Interpol. So in case any intrepid rock scribes point out the similarity, they’ve decided to take some influence from across the pond instead. ‘Unconditional’ is yet another new-wave revivalist number, and it’s near impossible to distinguish it from other thumping anthems provided by The Kaiser Chiefs, Futureheads, and Franz Ferdinand. Good or bad thing? Depends on how highly you value the concept of originality.
Long before hip-hop went Disney, a young Pras delivered the killer rhyme on the Fugees classic ‘Nappyheads’ hit. Nowadays he might as well join the Black Eyes Peas because his menacing MC talents of old have deserted him. Instead of spitting fury about blunts, hos and all the classic things any-self respecting rapper talks about, Pras spouts on about international terrorism over a badly chosen U2 sample. To be avoided like the plague.
Spitting expletives and wearing costumes that would turn heads in a Berlin S&M dungeon, The Warlords Of Pez are here to save Ireland from the po-faced musicians who threaten to take the island over.
