SOTW: Dead Social Club, Stockholm

Their Bandcamp page describes them as them as The Cure meets Depeche Mode. I can see why. But it's no Close To Me, no Personal Jesus. Why not? Because it's entirely its own beast. It's earthy electronica, without twinkle or shine. Instead it's full of rolling drums and the closest a keyboard can get to feedback, covered in eighties warmth and modern power. There's so much cocky certainty that it nearly trips over its own feet, but with every chorus it recovers and reminds you quite why you started listening in the first place.

7/10

Moll

Song Of The Week: Coyotes and Wolves, No Sleep

Modernisation has a lot to answer for. People are used to studio gloss, and they downright demand it. Supposedly, if it's raw, it's less worthy. Not so. There's something about the tape hiss that you don't get from anything else. There's an organic feel to it, a DIY feel that's absolutely priceless. An acoustic guitar or two, soul-baring lyrics, the occasional scream - you get that on Elliott Smith's Roman Candle, on Bright Eyes' Fevers and Mirrors, you get it here. It makes for an engaging, absorbing, powerful song. And who doesn't want that? Moll x

SOTW: Elite Gymnastics, We Don't Dream Anymore

The Cure. It needs to be said, before anything else; this sounds like The Cure. But to a reviewer whose favourite t-shirt quotes Friday I'm In Love, this is no bad thing. We Don't Dream Anymore ironically floats along in the midst of a sleepwalking fuzz; with the swirling synthesiser, the thudding bass, deadpan delivery - it should be a zombie of a song, but it's not.  It stands in the middle of a frozen world, half scared, half daring. Even so, there's a glimmer of life in the gentle darkness, a hopeful tinge to the cold desolation.

8/10


Moll x

Song Of The Week: Sunset Rubdown, Idiot Heart

The only way I could do this song justice is by quoting it in its entirety and leaving it at that.

Except I'm not allowed to do that, really, am I?

So am I only allowed to talk about the way the drums meander and fall, the way the keyboard sounds oh-so-Joy Division, the way it twists, twangs and builds, the way every. single. word. takes your breath away? It never stops, letting you fall over its oddly brilliant opening riff and then hitting you with a lyrical suckerpunch to the gut. It twinkles and shimmers like wax melting in the sun, like Darth Vader hanging fairy lights - sweet yet strangely creepy.  It sends you spinning as you try and keep track of all those twists and then drops the floor from beneath your feet; Wrapping itself around you, pulling you further and further into its own distorted wonderland. Sharp and sweet. Cosy and cold. Rising and falling like so many rollercoasters. Building, building, building, and then...and then it drifts away, promising an earth-shattering ending and not delivering.

9/10

Mollx

Song Of The Week: My Brightest Diamond, Be Brave

If you remember my post on Asthmatic Kitty Records, you'll remember that it's not a run-of-the-mill indie label. And My Brightest Diamond aren't a run-of-the-mill indie band, not by any stretch of the imagination. Be Brave is a twisted track. Primal rhythm, glossy electronic highlights, an unsettling orchestra and Shara Worden's beautiful, beautiful voice. This is not "average" music. This is not an "average" track. This is one of those tracks you find every now and then that knocks you off your feet.

8/10


Mollx


P.S. Stay tuned, there's an exciting review coming up soon!

SOTW: Adam Green, Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division Cover)

It shouldn't work. It shouldn't. But it does. Keyboard, yes. Drum machine, ok then. American guy, he can get away with it. Acoustic guitar? Surely it has too much warmth, less Eighties Manchester and more nineties Omaha? True. But somehow it manages to fit in the same frozen emotional clout, the same tricky minimalism. And although it's not the original - nothing can beat that - it stands up as a song that, rather than copying, twists it  self into an entirely new beast.

8.5/10

Mollx

Edit: Link fixed. Sorry.

SOTW: Your Ghost, Kristin Hersh

It takes a special song to stop you in your tracks. Your Ghost doesn't just stop you in your tracks. It covers you in goosebumps, makes your hair stand on end. It's full of melancholy poetry, a simple guitar, strings, and one of the most beautifully gritty voices since Patti Smith. But somehow it's more than just the sum of its parts. The sum of its parts would make an amazing song, true, but not a song this compelling, this heartbreaking. And it's more than just Michael Stipe's backing vocals that make it so.

10/10


Mollx

SOTW: Kimya Dawson, My Rollercoaster

Kimya Dawson. How she does it I'll never know - My Rollercoaster  is a bit of a jumble. Lyrics as fast and meandering as if she was just making it up off the top of her head, sometimes almost childishly soppy (The life I love is making music with my friends) and still full of quiet beauty. You can imagine her just sitting in your kitchen, laughing, joking, eating a flapjack...and just strumming this song, introducing it with a humble "I just wrote this, it's rough, but I'm really proud of it."  And she ought to be proud. It grabs you, shakes you, puts the biggest smile on your face, and has you humming it for the next three days.

8/10

Mollx

SOTW: Charlie Simpson, Down Down Down

I have one problem with commercial singer-songwriters: the very fact that they're commercial. It's a fine line sometimes, between commercial-with-merit and popular-indie - which is, say, the line between Charlie Simpson and Marcus Mumford. I'm going to say it right out - Down Down Down is an ok song. It has an acoustic guitar or two, strings, et al, and the man himself has a decent voice if that's your kind of thing. The most glaring thing about it, however, is that it's a song without substance. It's a tune, a group of musicians, in dire need of a good lyric. Case in point: "And the nights are so long without you / And the days speed up." Seriously, Charles. I mean, seriously. Much like his first outing as "the one from Busted with the terrifying eyebrows" (he's still got those, by the way), it's a diluted copy of a decent genre - first doing brain-numbing pop-punk, and now only-slightly-less-brain-numbing pseudo-folk. But it's ok! It does what it says on the tin. It's radio-friendly folk pop, and that's all. It won't change the world. Hell, it's not even trying to. 


But can someone please tell me what the deal is with that weird tempo change? 


3/10


Mollx

SOTW: Karen, The Trouble With Sweeney

There must be something in the August air that makes people unable to do anything but lie in deckchairs and eat ice-cream. Karen's a slow candyfloss whisp of a track, a song built on soft guitars, floating drums, lazy brass and sweet harmonies. It sounds frail, barely more substantial than the head of a dandelion, and yet it sticks in your mind - not catchy, as such, but just so pretty and fragile that it takes over your life for three minutes and twenty-six seconds. It's sweet but slightly heartbreaking, like coming to the end of your last bottle of lemonade.

8.5/10


Mollx

(The link I've given is also a free download link from Burnt Toast Vinyl, have a look around their site because they've got tons of downloads)

SOTW: Face Parade, Child Bite

For a band called Child Bite, the amount of death metal in Face Parade is pitiful. Non-existent, in fact. Instead it sounds like The Shins-meet-Sunset-Rubdown, having been introduced by Roxy Music. It's a song that can't really seem to settle - the sound rises and falls, glam one minute and synth-pop the next. It's a strange song, on first listen sounding uncertain, but the more you hear it the more confident it grows, until it dares you to dislike it.

7/10


Mollx

SOTW: See My Evil, Tom Williams And The Boat

"Rock'n'roll stomp" is a phrase journalists often use when the only thing to recommend a song is a certain T-Rex influence. And yes, See My Evil does have a rock'n'roll stomp. It also has slightly awkward narrative lyrics, a driving beat, feedback drenched guitars, and a singer on the edge of a breakdown howling about lies, psychiatrists, and MPs. It's awesome, scary, and painful. But in a really, really good way.

8/10

A five track EP is also now available (containing See My Evil) for free from the Team Love Library, and the song on its own is also free from the band's website.

Mollx

Song Of The Week

Catchy punk-power-pop heaven this week. I first heard this on BBC 6 music, fell in love with it, and then found it on one of Mum's compilation albums which saved me some 79 pence. The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet

AOTS this week is The Extra Glenns (or the Extra Lens as they now are), Martial Arts Weekend (from 2002, which I was surprised to learn. I thought it was from '97 ish for some reason). Very good so far. Check out 'All Rooms Cable A/C Free Coffee'. Free Coffee? I'm in.

Moll

Song Of The Week

I have two songs of the week today! Oh, I am spoiling you. Aren't I? Whaddya mean, no?

First. I felt sick when I first heard this, and it's the most immediate of the songs from the album, A Collection of Songs Written and Recorded 1995-1997. It's pretty good when you realise it was recorded on a 4-track in his basement when he was about 16. Bright Eyes, Falling Out Of Love At This Volume.

Second. I wasn't sure about this band at first, but the amazing bass lines pretty much sold it. Joy Division, Disorder.

Album of the Second: Basically a rarities collection released after his suicide. As such, it's pretty poignant - Elliott Smith, New Moon.

Mollx

Some Kind Of Roundup

Hey!

Another Song of the Week/Album of the Second for y'all:

Song of the Week...to be honest, I'm not totally over Something Vague yet, but I guess this weeks is Karen by The National, from their album Alligator.

And right now the Album of the Second is Boxer, again by the National

Mollxx