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- New band of the day: September 2010 playlist
Enjoy reading Paul Lester's daily new band tips? Then why not listen to the musicians he's raving about
The first time we did one of these hook-ups with SoundCloud, it was in early August when we posted a 30-song playlist of the tracks of the year so far by artists who had either appeared in New Band Of The Day since January or who had previously been featured in the column and had a single or album out in 2010.Now, in what will hopefully become a monthly roundup, we present the second playlist, and it's a 20-track affair comprising new artists of the last four weeks, or releases this month by erstwhile New Bands Of The Day. As per the spirit of NBOTD, it's an eclectic old mix. It starts with Can't Hold Back, uncannily lovely sweet soul with a hip-hop inflection by a character called Matt Henshaw who you'll doubtlessly be hearing more of soon. Trophy Queen by Guards featuring Caroline Polachek of Cults is haunting 60s pop revisited in a Summer Camp/Tennis/Best Coast vein. Love You More by The Pierces is not the Buzzcocks song but a torrid Fleetwood Mac-go-country melodrama by the titular Alabama sisters. Caramellas by Aeroplane is one of the saner moments from unarguably the weirdest dance album of the late summer. Hard to describe All Around And Away We Go by Twin Sister, but think Blondie's Heart Of Glass performed by Remain In Light-era Talking Heads.
Of the "older" new bands, Rose Elinor Dougall makes a reappearance because of her album Without Why, which came out at the end of August to much acclaim. On the back of triumphant festival performances, notably at Reading/Leeds, we thought we'd remind ourselves and you of why we liked Frankie & The Heartstrings. For the ultimate in Basque techno based on the manuscript for an opera written by a demented old geezer, look no further than Crystal Fighters, whose debut album is imminent. Lissie is another former New Band girl whose debut album got rave reviews this month. And finally there's the Heartbreaks, the Morecambe band finally getting some recognition for their indie pop that joins the dots between Motown and miserablism.
Back to August's bona fide new new bands, Tamaryn take the Cocteaus-isms of Rose Elinor further into the realms of hazy gorgeousness. Teengirl Fantasy, an electronic duo on the Big Pink's Merok label, do the drag thing of playing with pop past, although instead of 90s techno it's Chicago house being recontextualised, the raw gruff passion of the sampled original vocal pitch-shifted and phased to give it new meaning. Elsewhere, Mighty Mighty are a UK duo offering a convincing version of US disco.
We won't go on. Suffice it to say that of the rest, there's dubstep (Pariah), indie-folk (Melodica Melody & Me), warped doo-wop (Idiot Glee), an American take on Britgirl pop (Alex Winston), and a Clash/U2 hybrid (Mona) who probably elicited a better response than anyone else in recent memory when we did them, emails and phone calls-wise. They're going to be huge. Would we lie to you?
NBOTD playlist: September 2010
Matt Henshaw – Can't Hold Back
Guards – Trophy Queen
The Pierces – Love You More
Aeroplane – Caramellas
Twin Sister – All Around And Away We Go
Rose Elinor Dougall – May Holiday
Tamaryn – Love Fade
Teengirl Fantasy – Cheaters
Frankie & The Heartstrings – Ungrateful
Mighty Mouse – Junglefish
The Heartbreaks – I Didn't Think It Would Hurt To Think Of You
Pariah – Prism
Melodica Melody & Me – Plunge
Idiot Glee – All Packed Up
Alex Winston – Choice Notes
Crystal Fighters – Follow
Lissie – Little Lovin'
Mona – Listen To Your Loveguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Переслать - New music: Kylie Minogue – Wonderful Life
Kylie throws everything and the kitchen sink at her Live Lounge version of Hurts' Wonderful Life
When most acts show up at Radio 1's Live Lounge studios they do so with an acoustic guitar in hand, some hastily copied lyrics on a scrap of paper and a bleary look in their eye, having woken up at some ungodly hour. Not Kylie Minogue. For yesterday's cover of Hurts' recent single, Wonderful Life, the Aussie popstrel brought along an eight-piece orchestra, two backing singers and a pianist. Oh, and the words were written on posh sheet music instead of some old tissue. Either way, Kylie's version discards the 80s musical backing, chucks in lashings of strings and features some lovely vocal gymnastics towards the end. She even makes the trite lyrics sound genuinely heartfelt.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Could an Abba reunion ever top The Day Before You Came?
With a sense of foreboding almost unparalleled in pop, the Swedish quartet's last song is a forgotten masterpiece
So the mighty female component of Abba are reportedly discussing working together again for the first time since 1983. "It would be great to do something with Agnetha," says Frida, now 65. "If we did, it would be hard to avoid all the pressure because of Abba. It could never be low-key." But while a recording might be fun (if, as Frida says, somewhat highly strung), how on earth could a pair of sixtysomethings top the enduring appeal of the band's underrated last track – six-minute epic The Day Before You Came?
For those who remain immune to Abba's charms or haven't heard the song (after all, it wasn't on Mamma Mia!) The Day Before You Came – like many a classic – was an inexplicable flop, peaking at No 32 in October 1982 during a prolonged period of decline for the band. Rumour has it that the vocal was performed by Agnetha with the lights off, causing a whisper throughout the studio that this really was the end for the group. Finishing her vocals, our heroine was to remove her headphones and walk solemnly out into the daylight, never to return.But recording circumstances aside, what's so special about The Day Before You Came? Surely it can't compete with the transcendence of The Winner Takes It All?
I would argue that, in keeping with the band's final album, The Visitors, the track's power lies in its layering of boredom and grandeur, transience and doom. It combines a rising sense of melancholy, both in its melody and production, with wistful, nostalgic lyrics as it charts the ordinary life of a woman the day before the arrival of her lover.
It's this ordinariness, this universality (ironic given the band's fame) that hooks the listener immediately. Agnetha's first-person account of a day at the office, backlit by an almost unacknowledged depression, morphs into an unusually poignant parable of what modern life means. We are whisked through a sludge-grey morning commute, "heaps of papers waiting to be signed", and a rainy lunch at the "usual place" with "the usual bunch", followed by the slog home at 5pm with "Chinese food to go". Finally, at quarter past ten, our world-weary protagonist collapses into bed insisting she has "no sense of living without aim".
So far, so Abba. Yet if we look closer, the song's meaning becomes harder to fathom. Throughout, the lyrics are oddly imprecise – every sentence begins with "I must have … " or "I'm pretty sure … " – and it's this vague recollective tone that gives her account a tinge of unreality, even fiction. She is the perfect unreliable narrator: "I'm sure my life was well within its usual frame", she sings at one point, and we fear the reverse; later she claims, "at the time I never noticed I was blue".
Further ambiguity is provided by her bedside reading matter: the feminist American author "Marilyn French, or something in that style". Throw in the genuine sense of loss in Agnetha's voice, Frida's operatics, a moodily expressionist video and plaintive synths as omnipresent as the rain "rattling" on the roof, and The Day Before You Came carries a sense of foreboding almost unparalleled in pop music.
And all this is heightened by an extended funereal instrumental coda which acts as one big question mark, leaving us with the feeling that this is not just a meditation on the quotidian but something greater, existential even. Is this imagined relationship, like the band itself, doomed?
Of course, we can't expect such complexity from Abba's rumoured comeback single. But please continue your conversations, Agnetha and Frida. We're hoping this is the day you come back.guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать
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