Hey, Mr Postman, won't you please take me along, I won't do anything wrong, Singled Out!

September 22, 2003 by Andy Day

Add N to X - 'Loud Like Nature' (Mute)
Release date: 21/10/02
From the moment the first saw wave riff of 'Total All Out Water' kicks in you know this is Add N to X at their best, on this their fourth long player release. The album was recorded over twelve months in London, New York and Sheffield with a slew of other friends and artists making appearances on it. The resultant chaotic collage is an aural pleasure and takes the eardrum on a journey round the galaxy and back. The LP also includes the recent storming single 'Take Me To Your Leader', a floor filling ufologist stomper of a track that sets these electropunk noiseniks ahead of all the other pretenders.

Björk - 'Greatest Hits' (One Little Indian)
Release date: 04/11/02
This greatest hits album spans Björk's solo efforts so far, each track being selected by her fans via a web vote. Voters were encouraged to choose their favourite songs or those that best reflected her career which is mirrored in the final list being populated by both her biggest hits such as 'All Is Full of Love', 'Venus As A Boy' and 'Play Dead' as well as lesser known oddities and treasures. As a body of work it stands head and shoulders above many of her contemporaries and truly is impressive right down to the excellent artwork on the packaging and booklet.

The Libertines - 'Up The Bracket' (Rough Trade)
Release date: 21/10/02
After already making a substantial impact on the music media with their single releases, 'Up The Bracket' continues in much the same vein as what we've come to expect from the "British answer to The Strokes". Their battered tan jackets, floppy fringes and rent boy tales have projected them to the top of the new wave of UK guitar bands beating back the American onslaught and this album will further cement their reputation as the answer to all our sleazy dreams. A heady mix of The Jam's lyrical posturing over Clash member Mick Jones' saucy production values makes this an album worthy of your hard earned pay cheque/giro/student loan.

The Transplants - 'The Transplants' (Hell Cat)
Release date: 21/10/02
The Transplants are Rob 'SR' Aston, Tim Armstrong (of Rancid fame) and Travis Barker (Blink 182 and Boxcar Racer). These collaborators really speak for themselves when it comes to describing much of this album release. There's more than a nod or two headed in Rancid and Boxcar Racer's directions. Previous unknown Aston's vocals are littered with the perfunctory swearing you'd expect in this post-hardcore genre of music. A lot of the LP is a dirty little rock beast, although nodding too vigourously in Rancid's direction occasionally spoils it. For the most part though, its slightly more leftfield production techniques are a move in the right direction and for ****'s sake you get a free poster.

All Systems Go - 'Mon Chi Chi' (Bad Taste)
Release date: 04/11/02
These boys seem to be linked to a hell of a lot of big names, this their second album was produced (as was their first) by Ramones producer Daniel Ray and features guest appearances from members of Smashing Pumpkins and the Afghan Wigs and a couple of other lesser known bands. Most of this is standard four beat harmony laden rock, but occasionally it touches some really nice spots that drag it away from its clusters of samey-samey MOR tunes. When All Systems Go lay off a bit they can really shine and when they turn up the pace they can really rock. With so many big names backing them and a US Warped tour already behind them it's hard to see this band failing.

Bluebird - 'Hot Blood' (Sweet Nothing)
Release date: 11/11/02
LA five-piece Bluebird are a bunch of heavy rockers owing a lot musically to hair bands of days-gone-by. They layer big guitars with melodic vocal hooks, while managing to look nothing like the spandex clad cringe worthy past of the Spinal Tap variety, in fact they resemble any regular garage rock band that can be found under almost every stone in America. The album features MC5's guitarist Wayne Kramer on 'Beautiful Believer', but picking out his guitar playing from the wash of multi-layered-riffery must be difficult even for him. Although veering occasionally, Bluebird stick fairly closely to the blueprint laid down by the mighty Sabbath, but at least giving it a fresh airing.

The Sights - 'Got What We Want' (Sweet Nothing)
Release date: 11/11/02
The Sights, yet another Detroit offering from the garage rock resurgence that has given us so many great small grubby bands over the last couple of years. This three-piece add a touch of Phil Spector to the proceedings, some good old rock 'n' roll and the occasional whiff of 'I Should Coco'-era Supergrass, ELO, The Beatles and whole other host of stuff. All stirred in rather nicely. A nice side-step away from the crowd but still sleazy enough to interest us garage-rockophiles.

Badly Drawn Boy - 'Have You Fed The Fish?' (XL)
Release date: 04/11/02
No great departure has been made by behatted Damon Gough since his Mercury Prize winning release 'The Hour Of Bewilderbeast'. What maybe sets this record apart, if anything, is the maturity and every-dayness of his lyrics. There's some nice little tunes on this record. If you haven't connected with Badly Drawn Boy yet, this is unlikely to sway you, if you're already a fan, you will love this album. Recent single 'You Were Right' makes an appearance and sets a high standard for the rest of the album to live up to. It contains the brilliant lyric 'Madonna lived next door/I think she took a shine to me…but I had to turn her down.'

Singles:

Radio 4 - 'Dance To The Underground' (City Slang)
Release date:18/11/02
Harking from NYC Radio 4 sound like a strange mix of Duran Duran and the Rolling Stones. Funk driven bass lines and disco beats collide with the Jagger-esque vocals that demand that you 'Dance To The Underground' and why resist, this cross over record is ****in' ace. Dance to it, cop off to it, get pissed or pill to it, definitely do anything but ignore it. The single includes several dance remixes.

A - 'Somethings Going On' (London)
Release date: 18/11/02
Jason Perry's throaty rasps pulls this high-school teen-flick-theme-tuned pop rock little number through the hedge backwards. When does it stop? When you throw it out the window.

British Sea Power - 'Childhood Memories' (Rough Trade) Release date: 04/11/02
This certainly throws up some childhood memories or maybe I was too young, but echoes of Bowie, Psychedelic Furs and a tad of Talking Heads all come flooding back. This band sounds like no-one else around at the moment and although their sound manages to include more kitchen sinks than even the Cooper Temple Clause can throw into an album, this particular single is an easy to digest slice of Battenberg, yummy. The hook from the bridge 'A little electricity won't hurt' leads into a manic chorus that doesn't finally resolve until the last note of the song. Brilliant. Indie, eurgh, at its best.

Little Nikita - 'Jester' (Rocket Science)
Release date: 18/11/02
Ouch, this naughty little tune by Peterboroughan four-piece Little Nikita fuses the best elements of garage-rock with G'n'R-type choruses to great effect. Frontman Phil says of its recording - "It took ten minutes, by the time I sat down, rolled a fag, we'd finished. Apparently the quickest they'd seen for two songs." Now that's how to record a single.

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