As a little break from the Christmas songs, we’re going to run through the November leftovers today. These posts tend to get later each month, enough so that a couple of years from now I’ll probably be doing the October one in December in something. Which would just be silly.
MP3 Arrah and the Ferns – Emo Phillips
MP3 Arrah and the Ferns – Science Books
Arrah and the Ferns have been on my list to write about for a couple of months now, but I never seem to get around to writing up a full post, so I’m reluctantly including them in the leftovers category. I can’t remember where I first got them from (although I’m leaning toward Skatterbrain), but I got ‘Emo Phillips’ and it instantly got itself stuck in my head. I found some more songs, and eventually collected the whole ‘Evan Is A Vegan’ album using eMusic, and it’s all wonderful. While it may be a little sickly twee for some (the opening line is actually “OMG, he broke up with me”), if you like your music to be sweet, this is great stuff. It’s all a rather negative attack on stereotypes and relationships, and one of an increasing number of songs to feature Myspace as part of the song. I still haven’t worked out whether or not that part is a good thing.
MP3 The Ballet – In My Head
MP3 The Ballet – I Hate the War
New York’s The Ballet call their music ’sissypop band’ and describe themselves as “4 queers, 3 chords, 100 melodies”. As descriptions go, it doesn’t really get any more concise than that, and I’m not sure how much more information I can add. The songs here pretty much speak for themselves, particularly if you don’t let yourself get put off by the ’sissypop’ reference. ‘In My Head’ manages to get stuck exactly where it’s title says, and ‘I Hate the War’ is so simple, it’s perfect. Again, the title pretty much sums it up, with the song opening with “That’s it, I’m done writing songs about love / There’s a war going on”. Managing to be vaguely political without ever being irritatingly so, it’s as honest a pop song as you’re ever going to hear.
MP3 Ellie Come Home – Flip The Switch
MP3 Ellie Come Home – Premonition
Ellie Come Home are the latest band to arrive on Emergency Umbrella Records, who brought us the stunning Foundry Field Recordings album earlier on in the year. Ellie Come Home originally formed as a chamber band, and a lot of that sound makes it into their debut. Soaring strings and classical arrangements are commonplace throughout their songs. These are combined with gentle, reflective vocals to give a wonderfully subtle sound that never stays the same for very long.
That’s it for this month’s selection. The fourth song in our little advent calender will be going up shortly. Also don’t forget that we are merely two days away from Another Form of Relief’s first music event at the Tunbridge Wells Forum, featuring the fantastic sounds of It Hugs Back, 4 or 5 Magicians, Beeches and The Rox. Full details of the show can be found here.
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