Artrocker Magazine’s Single Reviews for the week commencing March 8th

John and Jehn
Time For The Devil
(Naive)

The Devil and pop music have always had a pretty good relationship, whether it be Robert Johnson's hoof-handshake at the crossroads, Mick Jagger's request that we Just Call Him Lucifer, or Cliff Richard's annual Christmas calenders (which, to this day, show the world's moldiest teen idol posing in sexy string vests). So over to French duo John and Jehn, whose comeback tune 'Time For The Devil' could - if you squint hard enough - be misinterpreted as a wish for the Horned One to rise up and begin his all-powerful reign on Earth. Ordinarily that would be a bad thing of course - the devil has many bad habits including impregnating hammy actresses with his children - but if the soundtrack's this good, I think we can get on board. 'Time For The Devil' was inspired by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, whose parable 'La Hora del Diablo' re-imagined the devil as a god of art and love, somewhat like Dionysus but without the kudos of being a sexy Greek babe. Fittingly then, the music has a gothic/poetic feel to it, with John giving it some Bowie-style crooning and Jehn wailing like a sea siren on the rocks. The end result manages to combine the psychedelic with the sexy, luring you deeper and darker into the forest of forbidden fruits.
Ric Rawlins


Gaggle
I Hear Flies
(Transgressive Records)

M.I.A. as re-imagined by a twenty-strong all-female choir with a taste in dark dubby beats. Despite my usual antipathy to repetitive, three-word refrains, Gaggle succeed in pulling off the sound of your neighbourhood yoofs descending into a slanging match (“I’m a drunk / I’m a drunk / You’re a drunk..” etc) without ever getting boring.
I thoroughly enjoyed the single. I even liked the B side. The vocals are exciting, the beats never get dull. My only criticism is that they seem to be out to court controversy for its own sake – releasing a song with the ‘I’m a drunk’ refrain, backed by a B side called ‘I Like Cigarettes’ is never going to win you fans at MumsNet (Britain’s newly all-powerful lobby – seriously, they are everywhere). C’mon, Gaggle. You’re better than that. And I am booking my ticket to your next gig. NOW.
Shan Vahidy


The Middle East
Blood
(Chess Club)

Like a delicate shag anthem plucked from Planet Intimate, this delicate tune hits all the right G-spots with a sense of grace and romantic tenderness.
Don't throw up just yet though - because although 'Blood' is indebted to Nick Drake and Simon & Garfunkel, it's also a playful scamp, flowing quite nicely into a sort of Smurf's birthday party anthem in which you can imagine tea lights in mini hot air balloons lighting up the sky quite magnificently. It ignites the part of your brain that's still a child - or in my case, simply ignites your brain. Googly woogly pretty wetty eeeee!
Ric Rawlins


Fanfarlo
Harold T Wilkins, or How to Wait For a Very Long Time
(Atlantic)

Ah, Fanfarlo. I’ve been a fan of these indie-popsters for a while now and they never let me down. Sounding not unlike Talking Heads (there’s more than a shade of David Byrne in the vocal styling of lead singer Simon Balthazar), their latest offering is a song about the British journalist and historian Harold T Wilkins. This is a splendidly catchy, toe-tapping four minutes of pop quirkiness. Remixed B-side ‘Comets’ is sadly not included on this promo, but if the album version is anything to go by, it too should be a cracker.
Mark Cousens


Local Natives
Airplanes
(Infectious Music)

Whatever are we to do with you, Local Natives? Your new single really has put us in quite a predicament.
On one hand there’s an inescapable feeling that if this single could sprout legs, it would walk across the room and cling to pop music’s new squeeze, Daniel Merriweather, like a randy limpet. A terrifying mental image and a fairly damning critique of any song. Yet, on the other, there’s something strangely endearing about it. Maybe it’s the violins, or the fact it has a schmaltzy, ‘guilty pleasure’ feel to it. We’re genuinely unsure, but whatever it is you won’t necessarily want to acknowledge it – largely because such an admission would be like revealing one of your darkest secrets to the world. You know, like that time you were in Mexico, took all that Mescalin and, well, you know the rest…
Rory Carroll


Colourmusic
Put in a Little Gas
(Memphis Industries)

‘Put in a Little Gas’ begins with the kind of swaggering confidence that would make Oasis blush (not a criticism - at this stage), while crunching guitars and tunnel-vision drumming propel things forwards with likably propulsive momentum. You can almost excuse them for dragging the whole gas/petrol/car metaphor out for such an unnecessarily long time.
But like a bellowing drunk who’s just been told to pipe-down in the pub, the song self-consciously stutters into a meekly gentle chorus that renders everything up until that point seem a little impotent. If you ask me, they should stick to being obnoxious.
Liam McCreesh


General Fiasco
Ever So Shy
(Infectious)

Lauded as one of 2010’s ‘next big things’, Northern Irish trio General Fiasco play the kind of anthemic everyman rock which succeeded in making tour mates The Enemy briefly huge a few years ago, before everyone realised how rubbish they were. Delivered in a thick regional accent, the opening gambit of ÒLet’s get wasted, it’s all we ever doÓ suggests general disillusionment with drink and drug culture, but lacks the epic pretentiousness that made Bloc Party’s ‘A Weekend In The City’ such a delight. While the pop-punk power chords and chorus hurtle along pleasantly, it’s difficult to see ‘Ever So Shy’ appealing to many out of their teenage years, their DNA not far removed from the likes of McFly, rather than regional forefathers The Undertones or Stiff Little Fingers.
Lewis Hingston