Love, Lust and Loneliness - It's Singled Out!

Contrary to the forlorn looking title, Ed Harcourt’s ‘Loneliness’ makes for a positively joyful listening experience. Vibrant, confident and optimistic it’s not quite what we’ve come to expect from the ever pensive Mr Harcourt, but the verve with which he delivers this track is truly contagious. Thankfully as well, it lacks the gaudiness that often comes with euphoric indie music. A tale of love, and conveniently released in time for Valentines Day, Ed is clearly reflecting on love whilst in the comfort of a relationship as he sings “What would I do without You?” It may well leave all you singletons out there thinking he’s being a bit of a smug bastard.

Within the six minutes of ‘Stay Where You Are’, New York five-piece Ambulance Ltd both confuse and impress. Sounding distinctly prog-rock, it opens with discordant guitars, rumbling and foreboding atmospherics that are akin to My Bloody Valentine and the likes. All this makes the cheery tune that eventually kicks in seem very unlikely and baffling. Imagine Brian Wilson jumping on stage during a Mogwai set and you’ll have the idea. The sheer breeziness and jangliness of the tune, however, leaves you reflecting on what could have been had the first two minutes continued in the same way. Still, top marks for being perplexing.

Sounding distinctly like her fellow country woman Bjork’s younger sister, ‘Sunny Road’ is the charming new track from Emiliana Torrini. It’s a very hush hush affair with Torrini’s whispery and fragile vocals echoing gently above the acoustic guitars and soft instrumentals. Slightly tweaked for radio from the even sparser album version, ‘Sunny Road’ is highly pleasing to the ears, but should definitely be avoided if you’re of a particularly dark discernment. The highlight of Torrini’s poignantly affecting, if very one dimensional, second album ‘Fisherman’s Woman’, this track will leave you chilled-out and glowing inside.

The House of Love’s ‘Love You So Much’ is the kind of middling, bog-standard indie-yarn that has already been done thousands of times before. On the surface there’s not too much wrong with it – it’s melodic, Guy Chadwick has a fairly decent voice and the musicianship is…. erm, tight. But we’re not music teachers here at gigwise. Truthfully, ‘Love You So Much’ lacks an iota of imagination, inspiration and individuality. Whilst not much music can truly be called original nowadays – as parallels can always be drawn – The House of Love are importantly devoid of any spark to separate them from their countless contemporaries and to ignite any interest.  

Ah… Embrace. Not since the demise of Shed Seven a few years back has a band been loved and vehemently loathed with equal aplomb. Don’t worry, we won’t bore you with a mandatory slur on the Huddersfield purveyors of anthemic-indie as you’ve no doubt vented your spleen on them many times before. Listening to ‘Looking As You Are’ it’s easy to see why they’re so hated – the sickly strings, Danny Mac’s nasal drawl together with the squeaky clean production all create an impossibly vacuous track. Yet, crucify me if you will, despite their full-blown tackiness, they’re still ever-so-slightly likeable to this reviewer. I’ll get my coat.    

Nottingham’s Six By Seven must be one of the most criminally overlooked bands of recent years. Despite their consistent brilliance, they remain largely ignored. Having shed a few members and now stripped down to a threesome they still spawn an almighty wall of noise, and ‘Ocean’ is no exception. A haze of guitar effects and dissonant keyboards, together with Chris Olley’s nonchalant snarl it makes for a satisfying cacophony of discord. On the other a-side ‘Clouds’, the band show a poppier side, yet there’s still a trademark potent chorus. Not one of their greatest moments, but an intense and intriguing listen nonetheless.

Already every A+R man’s wet dream, Willy Mason has surfaced this year on a wave of critical acclaim. On paper Mr Mason doesn’t look very endearing – he’s solo acoustic and pensive, in fact he seems like the new Damien Rice. Fortunately with ‘Oxygen’ he blows away all these preconceptions.  Raw, unpolished and mercifully devoid of self-indulgence there’s a certain honesty to Mason’s style. With lines like; “Do you remember the forgotten America? Justice, equality and freedom… Just need to get past all the lies and hypocrisy”, clearly Mason has an agenda, although it’s subtle and sincere. Top stuff.

Contrasting to the subtle poignancy of Willy Mason, it’s Stephen Fretwell with ‘Run’. It’s a case of the same dilemma that crops up almost every week in Singled Out (see The House of Love above) – there’s nothing particularly wrong with the track, it’s just that it’s a bit derivative and humdrum. Delivering the acoustic tune softly and industriously, Fretwell is clearly a talented writer and undoubtedly he can knock up a fairly-decent tune, yet it’s totally lifeless.  

Again, just in time for Valentines Day, it’s Aberfeldy with ‘Love Is An Arrow’ – how sweet! Sounding distinctly like sonic cousins of Belle and Sebastian, the twee song questions what exactly love is, and dissects the repercussions of that four letter word. It’s a quaint and happy little folk tune that wafts by the psyche without making any significant impression, and that’s about it. Oh, and there’s also an obligatory violin and accordion thrown in for good measure. Definitely for those who like sickly-sweet indie pop only.  

Venomous, violent, brutal and that’s just the song title. If anyone’s to provide the perfect anecdote to the Valentines Day soppiness we’ve seen this week, it’s Death From Above 1979. ‘Blood On Our Hands’ is typically brilliant fodder from the elephant nosed lads. In fact for such a malnourished-looking skinny framed duo they don’t half serve up a huge, uncompromising din. Yelping vocals, dexterous drumming and a throbbing bass line are the order of the day in this two minute ear bleeder. Perhaps the only let down is the b-side ‘You’re Lovely But You’ve Got Problems’, which sounds too much like a unadulterated homage to Led Zep for comfort. 

Firmly blowing away any joviality still left behind by Aberfeldy, it’s Rammstein with ‘Keine Lust’. Roughly translating to ‘No Passion’ (we stand to be corrected) the German purveyors of darkness provide a thugging onslaught to the senses, much as you’d expect from the band. Sung in their guttural, spitting native language, ‘Keine Lust’ is on the façade uncompromising - obviously, however, they’re trying to be radical and hard hitting, yet ultimately this is a yawn fest that’s only likely to appeal to troubled teenagers pissed off with their parents. The only enjoyable thing about it is trying to pick out as many words as possible remembered from GCSE German. Alas kla?

The best thing to come out of Stoke since Robbie Williams? Well it’s hardly a difficult mantle to carry and thankfully Agent Blue do it very well indeed. ‘Children’s Children’ is a dynamic and lively offering that despite being hardly mind-blowing, at least gets the pulse racing ever-so-faintly. Unashamedly British to the core, with front man Nic Andrews sounding like a young Joe Strummer, and musically occupying a space somewhere between The Cooper Temple Clause and The Music, Agent Blue tick all the right boxes to make it to indie-rock stardom.

After years of relative obscurity, Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro suddenly started receiving attention last year in the music press with the release of their album ‘Infinity Land’. Listening to ‘Only One Word Comes To Mind’ leaves you wondering why such a formulaic, inane stuff has got certain people dishing out plaudits with casual abandon. Really, it’s just run-of-the-mill fodder that you can’t really get too excited about. The word that comes to mind is definitely ‘average’. Worse is still to come, however, with the b-side ‘Drown In a Natural Light’, which at best sounds like a tribute to a lacklustre American rock band.