Rock Flock Of Five - Oh My God, Hopleless Wavvves of Amadeus. Yeah So?

Thought for this week I might pick a few unknown and lesser known (and one well known) acts from the postbox and see what I might be missing…

Wavves - Wavvves

Meeeeh. It’s all loud distorty and the sort of thing angsty yet slightly edgy shite goth kids would love (they have titles like To The Dregs, So Bored, Goth Girls and Weed Demon). More likely to give anyone else a headache requiring medication, and I’m usually pretty tolerant of that kind of nonsense. The band having two “v”s and the album title three “v”s leads me to believe there is some sort of “v” surplus in the US at the moment and they’re trying to foist their surplus vowels offfff on us. One of the sub-genres they belong to is listed on Wikipedia as “shitgaze”. Exactly. Christ, no. Off.

The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin

This is very much more like it, reminds me of Springsteen in places. Very classy, lovely simple American songwriting beautifully played. The sort of album that slots perfectly into say, The Band, Tom Petty or Dylan in the 70s and that’s a very good thing from my standpoint. Definite listen again.

Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus

These lads are a one trick pony whose trick got old before the 21st century had taken its first breaths. Bad wanky synth pop from dudes who can’t sing.

Slow Club - Yeah So

On first listen this sounds a bit Moldy Peachesy but than it breaks into gorgeous lyrically dense harmony filled melodic two hander boy/girl rock bordering on country in places. “If you came back as the deep sea I would come back as the salt” is my favourite line in any song this year.

Brett Dennen - Hope For The Hopeless

“Beyond the rules of religion, the cloth of conviction, above all the competition where fact and fiction meet” is my least favourite line in any song this year. Dull and turgid.