Back from a long weekend in Paris, here’s my weekly platter of five songs recently improving my ears’ mood…
The School – Let It Slip
Welsh eightpiece The School mix 50s/60s pop stylings with some very modern Mark Ronson-esque effects – dainty keys, electro jingles and a general smoothness. With anyone else it would be like too many After Eights on Christmas Day, but singer Liz’s classy drawl and the sheer bouncy goodness of the songs keeps the puke well at bay. This particular number also boasts some great rock gusto.
Twin Sister – The Other Side Of Your Face
You’re slow-mo robot-walking through Hyde Park at dawn, the last of the speed still wearing off as the sun floods up and birds sing good morning, passing strollers’ voices like drones in your head, and then Andrea starts singing, slowing you down, promising it’ll all end happily. Twin Sister have some great songs, but this spectral seven-minute odyssey of gently throbbing techno-indie is the fairest of them all.
Rafter – Fruit (Baths Remix)
Ooh Rafter – love his funky soul-pop numbers! Ohhhh Baths - heart his digital wackiness! What’s that? Baths has remixed one of Rafter’s best tunes and made it trippily fucked-up (read: ephemeral, echoey, hazy) and yet still bum-shaking? Oh, and this is Fruit, a song with the most gorgeous lyrics anyone’s ever heard, about a love affair frustratingly out of reach? Man… is this heaven?
Sunvisor – Sky Dive
This is the exact musical representation of those unfocused spots you see when you’ve stared at the sun for a few seconds, then looked away. Instead of wondering if you’ll ever be able to watch Mulholland Drive again, listen to NY duo Sunvisor‘s ice-cream dream of a song, a melodic spine-tingler that also features some Gregorian-style chants, and a constant drum stroke in the distance.
Underworld – Scribble
Mention Underworld and all I do is think of Ewan McGregor doing breast stroke in a toilet, and lines about lager, lager, lager. This return threatens to thankfully change that: it’s a glorious, euphoric tumult of synthy boosts and reach-for-the-laser keys, destined to thrill the pants off a dance tent near you this summer.
MP3s available via song titles
Like Twin Sister, reminds me of The Cranberries and a bit of The Pipettes.