Singles
Jack Savoretti blends radio-friendly with folky-pop
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Friday, 28, Mar 2008 11:56
Gather round, o music lovers and learn what the knights of the turntable think of this week's brand new singles including Camille, Jack Savoretti and Elle Milano.
Single of the week
Jack Savoretti: Gypsy Love/One Man Band
De Angelis Records; out March 31st
Decidedly radio-friendly folky pop from an artist that combines the outsider charm of Ray LaMontagne with the heartfelt passion of Tom Baxter.
Gypsy Love is an ambling love song to be listened to on the porch of an Arizonan ranch as the sun fades; relish and revel in Savoretti's dusty vocals and sweet guitar.
One Man Band, the second track on this fine double A-side, is a beautiful Dylan-esque number complete with melancholic harmonica and acoustic guitar swooping around Savoretti's superb voice.
With one listen, you'll be wanting to ride the rails like some 1930s hobo doing your utmost to escape the crippling Depression.
2008 has got off to a very good start for 24-year-old singer-songwriter Savoretti. He was Caffe Nero's artist of the month for February and March, performing in 350 branches of the coffee shop chain across the UK.
Savoretti's new album Between The Minds is released on March 31st.
And he is scheduled to play the Tribeca Festival in New York and Musexpo in April.
Bumblebeez: Rio
Modular; out March 31st
This convention-defying Australian brother and sister duo drop their debut single Rio.
The track tells the story of a girl who is looking for the ultimate time while on holiday.
This is combined to sheer break beat madness which will not be appreciated by the average pop-head.
Rio may not get a lot of airplay on most mainstream radio and TV channels but somewhere in Shoreditch, a club will be more than happy to play this track to fill the dancefloor. Could well be a club anthem in the making.
Camille: Gospel With No Lord
Charisma Records; out March 31st
French female singer Camille releases Gospel With No Lord, the first song from her third studio LP Music Hole.
Gospel With No Lord offers a quirky, catchy beat that is perfectly complemented by the artist's childlike and harmonious voice.
Camille is no stranger to the music scene; her previous album sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide.
Camille's success does not stop with top-selling albums. She received best newcomer award and best album at the French Grammys in 2006, and she scooped the French Mercury Prize in 2005.
Elle Milano: Meanwhile In Hollywood
Brighton Electric; out March 31st
Crispy and crunchy indie rock from this rising Brighton-based three-piece whose evocative Englishness is the perfect soundscape to tales of late night loneliness, confusion and 20-something angst.
Punchy guitars, nifty synths and captivating vocals abound, and allow the band to set out their stall for their forthcoming debut album Acres Of Dead Space Cadets, out on April 14th.
Newton Faulkner: I Need Something
Ugly Truth Records; out March 31st
Decent enough singer-songwriter stuff from Newton Falkner but there's something of an emotional core missing from proceedings. Although, it has the potential to be a grower.
Ungdomskulen: Modern Drummer
Ever; out March 31st
Riotous rock from this fun-loving and musically audacious Scandinavian trio that will unblock your musical sinuses in no uncertain terms.
click here to read the inthenews.co.uk interview with Ungdomskulen
IAMX: The Alternative
No Carbon Records; out March 31st
Excellent electro-indie that fuses James, EMF, bits of Goldfrapp and the KLF at their most pompous and arch.
Heck, there's even overtones of Gary Numan and 80s pop heartthrobs A-ha in this instantly likeable number.
The BitRayker and Sidney Looper remixes up the ante into nu-rave and Kosheen territory to get your party bubbling over, while the acoustic version is simply scrumptious with its innate air of menace and mystery.
Hello, IAMX. Where have you been all our lives?
Metronomy: Rapid
Pure Groove/Universal; out March 31st
Eighties-inspired indie-dance that starts out grating on your nerves before graduating to full-blown annoyance.
Bauhaus: Too Much 21st Century
Cooking Vinyl; out March 31st
The unintentional creators of goth, Bauhaus emerged from punk rock in 1978 and playfully skipped through music's playground embracing glam, new wave and all stations in between.
Their new single is a sexy slide through the realms inhabited by 70s Bowie and Roxy Music, and Daniel Ash's louche guitar thrusts gleefully against the Devo-meets-Joy Division vocals of Pete Murphy.
Dangerous and decadent, Too Much 21st Century is lifted from the band's new album Go Away White, which is out now.
The Black Keys: All You Ever Wanted from the album Attack & Release
V2/Co-operative Music; album out March 31st
When the Black Keys invited producer Danger Mouse into the studio the result was a track dripping in sublime old-skool blues, albeit blues from an alternative 1973 that sometimes sidles up to our reality via booze-induced dreams, wherein Nixon dropped atomic bombs on Vietnam and Easy Rider 2 was the highest-grossing movie of the year.
The Locarnos: Give it to me Straight
South West Recordings; out March 31st
Enter the Locarnos: four likely lads from Somerset who answer to the names LJ, Drys, Sinc and The Angel, and whose stock in trade is shiny upbeat indie that is inspirational and danceable too.
Having played with the likes of the Metros, the Holloways and British Sea Power, and seducing sell-out crowds on the 2007 Teenage Rampage Tour, the band decided it was high time to put out a single, and Give it to me Straight is the result - pure class, drink it in.
Lee Davis and Tracey Dawkins