Another Form of Relief

Yeah yeah.

Arriving from the ashes of the mighty Nosferatu D2 is Superman Revenage Squad, a one man stream of consciousness tour de force. The music doesn’t really matter because it’s all about the words. Which is for the best, because as Idiot Food is disjointed at best. The song is littered with entire sections that go wandering off on separate tangents and leave the music behind. But it doesn’t really matter as you’ll usually find yourself nodding in agreement with everything he’s saying.

I woke up feeling like a new person, unfortunately he was much worse than the one I used to be

A fine slice of upbeat melancholy from Sweden’s ambassadors of loserpop (I will make this a genre if it’s the last thing I do).

Rock bands fronted by girls with aggressive vocals seem to be in favour at the moment, but who are we to argue when the results are as good as Australia’s Operator Please? Seemingly a rallying cry against popularity, all of the crucial boxes are ticked, from shouty-to-gentle vocals, music that goes all over the place, as well as the obligatory occasional fuck.

If any band can put as much of a smile on my face as Tullycraft can, I haven’t heard them yet. Probably the best kept secret within the indie pop scene (this is their 13th year and they still seem to be obscure), last year saw the release of their fifth album, Every Scene Needs A Center. The whole thing is loaded with excellent pop songs, but few come close to the pure joy of If You Take Away The Make-Up.., with it’s handclaps, gentle vocals and to the point two minute running time.

Coming across as a sort of 2007 version of The Futureheads (only, you know, good), Assembly Now don’t seem to have quite nailed their final sound yet, but it’s fun listening to them mess around while they try. Leigh-On-Sea perfects the all over the place vocals and guitar rhythms that initially worked so well for the aforementioned band. Assuming they keep on doing what they’re doing and finally settle on a sound that is just a tiny bit more original, these guys have the potential to be something very special.

It was the always great Nothing But Green Lights that first put me onto The Bridge Gang, and thanks to my ever excellent timing, they had already broken up by the time I started listening. It still amazes me that great bands can fly entirely under your radar for years without you ever being aware they exist. Oh well, late or not, London Sky Tonight is a perfect rock single - rough, ready and deceptively simple.

One of only two songs from Under The Blacklight that I still quite like a few months later, Dreamworld is far, far too good to have anything to do with that album. The only Blake effort within an increasingly Jenny-centric band, it has all of the subtlty and depth that the rest of the album seems to lack. Just listen to the wonderful guitar work and take in the oh so softly vocals. I have no idea what it’s about, and honestly I can’t say that I care. It’s all about the sound.

Just when I think Two Gallants are destined to be a band where I appreciate a few songs but never really love any of them, along comes a song like this and completely blows me away. This song alone has rocketed the band to the top of my ever expanding “bands I should check out in more detail when I have the time” list. If they have just one more song as good as this, it’ll be worth it.

Inara George’s vocals are the only reason I like this. Ironically, I don’t really like her solo work or even other Bird & The Bee songs, but this song? The vocals are perfectly crafted, particularly on the verses. It gets a little close to spoken word, which is probably the appeal. More songs like this please.

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