Reviews – Singles
Singles Of The Year 06
1.Arctic Monkeys
When The Sun Goes Down (Domino)
Their opening single, ‘I’ll Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’, was sharp as a tack but the bitter lyricism of ‘When The Sun Goes Down’, with its darker observations about prostitutes and punters, took matters a step further. There’s a huge market in the UK for music that details urban/suburban living, from The Streets to Hard-Fi, but Arctic Monkeys push lyricism a step further, adding a dose of pithy vitriol worthy of Philip Larkin.
2. The Aliens
Alienoid Starmonica EP (Pet Rock/EMI)
When John Maclean and Robin Jones of the now-defunct Beta Band hooked up with their old buddy Gordon Anderson it was likely the music would be a little unhinged. Few, however, could have predicted this psychedelic-electronic whirlpool wherein country and western warps into outer space, where Gram Parsons has a hoedown with The Orb, and where the pop-mantra chorus of ‘Robot Man’ loops joyously round and round and round.
3. The Gossip
Standing In The Way Of Control (Soulwax Nite Version) (Kill Rock Stars)
A definitive dancefloor hit of the last quarter of the year, pointing the way to what 2007 may hold, if we’re lucky. Beth Ditto came top of the NME ‘Cool List’ though it’s difficult to deduce what that means since Carl Barat was up there a year or two back. Ditto, however, is the real deal, an Alabama punk rocker whose vocal chords pitch up alongside Soulwax’s Moroder-in-motorik-Hell riffing perfectly.
4. The Klaxons
Atlantis To Interzone (Merok)
Raging out the traps at a hundred miles a millisecond comes the years most-hyped band. They want us to know they like William Burroughs. They want to tear through the whole song as frantically fast as possible. They want to tie a few electronic bells’n’whistle onto it song for the sheer noisiness of it. Then they want us to yelp along to the patently loopy chorus. Seems churlish to say, ‘No’.
5. Scissor Sisters
I Don’t Feel Like Dancing (Polydor)
Leave it a year or two, obviously, because inescapable songs are not very loveable. Resistance, however, is useless. To disagree is akin to pretending that ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’ is rubbish simply because you’re so sick of watching hen parties fall over to it. A perfectly calibrated hunk of Elton-esque disco that’s leavened with the electro-pop bollocks to drag even the most unwilling onto the dancefloor.
6. Reslesslist
Butlin Breaks (Life Is Easy)
A couple of guys from Electric Soft Parade knocked this up with a mate and then disappeared from view. It’s the greatest piece John Barry never wrote, all twangy guitar, tinkling percussion and joyful brass. It may simply be a case of precision sampling but, whatever, it’s jammed with enough gusto to have even Agent Harry Palmer cutting a dash in the Empire Ballroom.
7. Hot Chip
Over & Over (EMI)
For the line, “Over and over and over and over/Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal/You know the joy of repetition is in you,” which is as good an encapsulation of Es and raving as there’s ever been, it deserves attention. A cracking song, although the avalanche of praise for their passable electronic pop album is rather mystifying.
8. Amy Winehouse
Rehab (Island)
She didn’t want to go to rehab but would they listen? No, no no – so she had to write a song about it. Not only is it a great uptempo soul shouter but it also sums up the modern celebrity cult of media absolution via The Priory (see last issue’s Media Slag).
9. Gnarls Barkley
Crazy (Warner Bros)
Some in Beatmag’s offices were won over immediately by this modern soul gem while it took others half the year to ‘get’ it. All parties now agree that Dangermouse and Cee-Lo have delivered one of those classics that will still be played long after we’re all dust.
10. Metronomy
You Could Easily Have Me (Holiphonic)
Joseph Mount is now established at the vanguard of noisy rock’n’roll-tronica, in demand for remixes for everyone from Zero Seven to Roots Manoeuvre. This is the tune that established him. It has just the right ratio of grungey distortion to crunchy beats. An original.
11. Kasabian
Shoot The Runner (SonyBMG)
12. Padded Cell
Are You Anywhere (DC)
13. Lil’ Chris
Checkin’ It Out (SonyBMG)
14. Camera Obscura
Lloyd, I’m Ready To Be Heartbroken (Elefant)
16. Diastole
Escalade EP (diastole.net)
17. The Pipettes
Your Kisses Are Waster On Me (Memphis Industries)
18. Fireworks Night
When We Fell Through The Ice (Organ Grinder)
19. Kelis
Bossy (Virgin/EMI)
20. Gelatine Rocks EP
Sensational Baby EP (Treacle Nemesis)
Singles for review should be sent to…
Thomas H Green, Beatmag, PO Box 4653, Worthing, BN11 9FG, UK
