CAMERA OBSCURA ? Lloyd, I?m Ready To Be Heartbroken
For some unknown reason, the ghost of Motown has descended upon Scottish twee pop bands this year. Belle and Sebastian?s The Life Pursuit was funkier than it had any right to be coming from a conglomerate of thin, bookish, white people, and now their spiritual successors, Camera Obscura, wander along with instrumentation stolen from some lost Supremes song. Swooning strings, organ, horns, and harmonies everywhere transport you back to 1967, but the distinctly light voice of lead singer Tracyanne Campbell and gleaming guitar leads plant it firmly in the present. The themes are still the same (schoolyard love affairs in sweater vests) but the music has matured since 2004?s Underachievers Please Try Harder to more than a doe-eyed copycat of their beloved predecessors. It?s cute but not cloying, dreamy but not sappy, charming but not overbearing.
PHOENIX ? Long Distance Call
For some unknown reason, the ghost of Motown has descended upon Scottish twee pop bands this year. Belle and Sebastian?s The Life Pursuit was funkier than it had any right to be coming from a conglomerate of thin, bookish, white people, and now their spiritual successors, Camera Obscura, wander along with instrumentation stolen from some lost Supremes song. Swooning strings, organ, horns, and harmonies everywhere transport you back to 1967, but the distinctly light voice of lead singer Tracyanne Campbell and gleaming guitar leads plant it firmly in the present. The themes are still the same (schoolyard love affairs in sweater vests) but the music has matured since 2004?s Underachievers Please Try Harder to more than a doe-eyed copycat of their beloved predecessors. It?s cute but not cloying, dreamy but not sappy, charming but not overbearing.
THE RACONTEURS ? Store Bought Bones
?Steady As She Goes? is the one you?ll likely hear on the radio, but this song ? the other one released on the double A-side single ? is the snarling barnstormer that indicates what this Jack White/Brandon Benson supergroup is capable of doing. The keyboards that start the song are already distorted enough to be guitars; they just layer on top of each other, piling on the grooves, until everything drops out and White utterly shreds the track into nothingness. The man may be partially responsible for the rise in simplistic garage rock again, but when it comes down to it, he?s a damn good guitarist when the need arises. It?s all over in 2:25, during which they don?t even bother with a real chorus. Verse, verse, bridge, solo, over. That?s really all you need; any longer and you?d have time to catch your breath. It?s the White Stripes, fleshed out and beefed up.
MIDLAKE ? Young Bride
The fact that I?m almost willing to call this song the best of the 2000?s, not just 2006, is indicative of how much I like this song. I love it. Dearly. I can?t write up a dissertation explaining why it is the best song I?ve heard this year, can?t give you a proof of its musical greatness. All I know is whenever that opening violin slithers in, layered on top of a simple, delicate acoustic guitar, only to slowly pick up steam with a thudding bass line and distorted drums into the single greatest chorus of the past? ever, I?m already setting up the repeat on my iPod for another spin. Lead singer Tim Smith holds control of the verses, but he?s enveloped by his bandmates? harmonies in such a way to form one of the most beguiling vocal parts in a long while. The evolution from the band?s 2004 record Bamnan and Slivercork to now is such a quantum leap that it?s hard to believe it?s the same band. The music video is just as good as well. If this doesn?t earn the band stardom, women, and houses made entirely of gold, something is wrong.
