Fujiya & Miyagi - Knickerbocker (7")
Brighton quartet Fujiya & Miyagi have a neat little whoremonger, first revealed in their 2006 single Ankle Injuries. They reprize spiky streams of consciousness in a monotone simply slightly sensual way (sample: "Vanilla, strawberry, Knickerbocker glory - I saw the ghost of Lena Zavaroni"), while a dirty bassline trundles aside and a Hammond organ whirls in the background. If this is what the shade of minor singer Zavaroni really does sound like, her specter is welcome to make an appearance at our gaff anytime.
Grace Jones - Corporate Cannibal (12")
It's profane in music circles to say anything negative roughly disco-demoness Grace Jones. It's up in that respect with slagging off the Velvet Underground or saying Leonard Cohen is over-rated. Fortunately, my critical reputation won't be torn to pieces by angry bloggers this time, as Corporate Cannibal is nothing short of awing. "Pleased to have you on my plate, your meat is sweet to me," chants Jones over fluid Massive Attack-styled trip-hop. And if anyone has the proper to chant a series of creepy-crawly metaphors explaining why she's a man-eating machine, it's her.
New Kids on the Block - Summertime
Has the world has lost the original Boston bad boys of boy bands? Maybe, just it has definitely not missed Abercrombie and Fitch-loving trio LFO (Lyte Funky Ones). So why on earth Jordan, Donny and the rest have chosen to reference their gag-inducing 1999 strike Summer Girls is unclear, though the faint swells of college-radio synths in Summertime would suggest that the Kids are drudging under the illusion they're picking up where the last Timbaland-produced Justin Timberlake song leftfield off. Note to former boy bands: this is not the best way to reintroduce yourself to the world after taking a 14-year break.
I WON'T LET YOU DOWN - OUT 25TH AUGUST
Subways - I Won't Let You Down
Why are the Subways so big? It's a new mystery, up there with high viewing figures for Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and decent sales of celebrity perfumes. Still, Billy, Charlotte and Josh are festival main stage-playing, hysteria-inducingly BIG. Their up-to-the-minute single, like everything else the Home Counties rock trio has recorded, is lumpen, whiny and forceful in practically the same way that most bands who've adult up hearing to goose egg but the Smashing Pumpkins are. It would seem that every generation gets their have version of Feeder � annoying, rattling, considering the original Feeder are still doing the rounds.
Conor Oberst - Souled Out (7")
Apparently, there's a deeper-than-deep meaning behind this wicked pun. "Given all the metaphysical allusions," writes hipster indie blog Stereogum, "it's not too hard to see this as a riff on Plato's cave allegory from The Republic." Now, spell it's non hard for us to see that, the philistines among you may motive some help with this pretentious verbal description. So let us inform you that Souled Out joins what sounds frighteningly like an Oasis riff with Oberst's could-collapse-any-minute vocals, through which he covers everything from magic carpets to "Snow White and the Poisoned Apples". And classical Greek philosophy. We think.
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