Back from the brink*

HELLO THERE!

Thanks for bearing with me during the week-long break. I notice that traffic to the site only dipped very slightly. No doubt it was bolstered by the perennially popular searches for "What is the meaning of Ed Sheeran's Small Bump?" and "Granny Porn" - which take you to this page and this page, respectively.

To be honest, I didn't listen to much new music while I was away. Jessie Ware's terrific debut album was on near-constant repeat and, when it wasn't, I was doing important holiday things like reading a book, or sleeping in the afternoon, or falling asleep reading a book in the afternoon.

"Nonetheless", these four songs caught my eye (ear?) and here they are with a brief explanation of the music and images carried within the video container directly below the relevant text.

1) Tame Impala - Elephant
Strap on your sideburns and pull on your platform boots because Tame Impala have gone glam rock. This is the first single from Aussie quintet's second album, Lonerism, and finds them peering down the same time-tunnel as The Black Keys on their (excellent) El Camino album.

Elephant is based around a grizzly guitar-fuzz shuffle, but also features the worst drum solo since a badger got trapped in our crockery cupboard.



2) Taylor Swift - We Are Totally Never Ever Whatever, So Like OK, Yeah?
OK, that might not be the actual title, but it captures the spirit of Taylor "country music, what's country music?" Swift's new direction. The song, co-written by Swedish pop magicians Max Martin and Shellback, is as catchy as it is unoriginal. The video is ostensibly shot in one take, although the edit points are fairly obvious, and features a maniacally happy man dressed as a dog. I love it.



3) Ultraista - Bad Insect
I don't know much about this band except that they consist of Radiohead's producer Nigel Godrich, former REM drummer Joey Waronker, and their significantly younger vocalist, Laura Bettinson, who used to be in an aggressively boring band called Dimbleby And Copper (click here to see footage of them playing to half-a-dozen people at Glastonbury 2009).

Their collaboration is much, much better than the above explanation might lead you to believe.



4) Michael Kiwanuka - Bones
Here's a conversation I overheard recently: "Why do you think the Michael Kiwanuka album flopped?", "He was really, really boring". Ah well, I still think he's got more soul than the rest of the top 40 combined. Bones, the latest single from that album, combines Soggy Bottom Boy back-up vocals with a wonderfully old-school snare drum shuffle.

Don't bother watching the video - just let the tune play while you go off to buy The Hunger Games DVD on Amazon.


* Chichester

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