Talking about Blue Roses without using hackneyed and tired clichés is quite hard, not because she isn't any good (she's bloody fabulous) but because she makes the kind of genuinely ethereal and otherworldly alternative folk, that is often mediocre, and occasionally amazing. In her case, obviously, she's the amazing brand.
Softly lilting piano and guitar riffs, icy and yearning violins, lyrics about singing (or sinking) into the night all carried seamlessly along by Blue Roses' (or Laura Groves) frail, haunting voice. Her debut album (the eponymously titled Blue Roses) was released earlier this year on XL and is well worth your money. In a year that, allegedly, belongs to the flawed and almost accidentally amazing Florence, Blue Roses proves an entirely credible, uncontrived and gloriously haunting treat.
We missed her at Latitude, and we're gutted. Find her here on the interwobbles.
Karin Dreijer Andersson (a.k.a Fever Ray a.k.a her-out-of-the-Knife) is a startling and unique talent, but then you probably already knew that. Her debut solo album, the eponymously titled Fever Ray, was released digitally earlier this year and due to some heinous blip in our judgement we forgot to write about it, but let us correct that now. Although her solo effort still greatly resembles her work with The Knife, when it's of this high quality, you can't complain.
And what high quality! Terrifying and ominous synth drones announce the opening of the album on "If I Had A Heart", pulsating and vibrating against Dreijer Andersson's digitally altered vocals. On "Now's The Only Time I know", tuned percussion echos rhythmically throughout. Lyrically themes of motherhood and birth pervade:
"In my arms she was so warm Eyes are open the mouth cries Haven't slept since summer"
she moans on "Concrete Walls". Here she sounds wise, ancient, transgender, and then suddenly young and whining. This is the stuff of nightmares and it is brilliant.
There have been two singles from the album already, each with their own uniquely petrifying music videos, and now there is a third: "Triangle Walks". If you want and are so inclined, you may download a remix for free here, although we fully encourage you to buy also. We also promise that from now on, the second Ms. Fever Ray does anything we will inform you of it immediately. We can but apologise for our previous mistakes.
Paloma Faith should be right up our street... We've got a gingerish ex-burlesque dancer here who starred in St. Trinian's. That on its own should be enough to get us obsessed. It's the song, "Stone Cold Sober", really, that lets us down. Let us be clear: it's not 'bad'. But... it's unimaginative at the very least. Obviously it's going to be a hit.
We read someone say somewhere that they thought this looked like one of those one-off expensive videos that is everywhere all summer and then the artist is never heard from again.
Ellie Goulding appears, to us at any rate, to have come out of nowhere but she's been popping up on music blogs for ages. Cryptic. Despite the hipster hype, she is a genuinely intriguing singer/songwriter and we fully recommend you check her out, although if you read music blogs you undoubtedly already know who she is.
If you thought the whole 'little Winehouse' phenomenon had been KILLED forever by Lady GaGa and her band of synthy divas - you were wrong. Disillusioned record labels are still trying to squeeze money out of any woman with a decent, soul-flavoured voice and it sucks. In fact, the only good thing to come out of the whole post-Winehouse thing is Adele, who is genuinely extremely talented, not just at singing but also at songwriting and being a charming and beautiful young woman.
On the more dreadful side we've been fed Duffy, who despite some impeccably calculated and well produced Dusty Springfield impersonations has the personality and performance skills of a cheap, lifeless wig and Gabriella Cilmi, who just defies description, she is that bland. These women are NOT copying Amy Winehouse, but the fact that they finally got signed, and given the big push towards chart success is directly related to Amy Winehouse. Anyway... now we have Pixie Lott who is rather fit (in a completely forgettable way) and err... that's it.
She doesn't necessarily take anything away from pop (other than being boring) but she certainly doesn't add anything either. Oh and if that's not enough... check out Emma Deigman. We saw her supporting Girls Aloud and she was like a horrific cross between Gabriella Cilmi and Joss Stone with the looks of sort of Lucie Silvas crossed with... someone else boring.
She can sing. But that doesn't make her interesting. She did a horrific sort of 'soul' version of Lady GaGa's "Just Dance" and several songs that we gather were supposed to be all about being a strong, independent woman in charge of her own life (they were about Jimmy Choos). If anything boils our blood more than boring singers singing boring music, it's boring singers singing boring music who think they are somehow proponents of 'strong, independent women in charge of their own lives' when in reality they stand for a weak, sentimental sort of anti-feminism that seems to spit directly in Emily Pankhurst's grave.
Anyway, we digress. Let us get to the point: Pixie Lott and Emma Deigman = boring, pointless, irritating. Oh and don't even get us started on the fact that not ONE of these supposed new Queens of Soul is black (with the exception maybe of Estelle and VV Brown who, like Adele, are both too interesting in their own right to fall into the post-Winehouse category).
A while back, readers, The Lipster (amazing amazing amazing) did a thing about the WORST music act in the WORLD. They were searching high and low (i.e. on myspace) and they came up with some truly horrible horrors. German rappers, Iranian boybands, Christian rave bands etc. etc. etc. And then there was Polly Scattergood.
The whole Polly Scattergood thing is very confusing for the following reason: We SHOULD like her. To elaborate: she is a female singer/songwriter with a thing for poetry. Unfortunately Polly Scattergood is apparently extremely depressed. Either that or she just wants a load of attention for ACTING depressed. Almost every single one of her songs contains allusions to killing herself. And not in marvellously original ways, either.
We're all for depressed (female) musicians... and often they can make rather good music. When Tori Amos was at her bleakest and clearly most disturbed, she was making the best music of her career. Björk has done some great stuff clearly inspired by feelings of deep sadness. So has Kate Bush! And let's not forget Robyn's "With Every Heartbeat" which is one of the most marvellous and most depressing songs of all time.
But Polly wants to beat us over the head with it. Or rather, breathlessly serenade us to death with it. She wants us to give her pills so she can go to bed. She bleeds everytime you kiss her apparently. She has a dark place. She writes poetry about "fake fucking people who drink all the gin". She has a habit for recording startingly non-original phrases like "I miss you" and "Where are you?" all breathy and having them echo as if she is uttering something extremely poignant and important into a big empty cave OF DOOM.
And this sort of irks us.
Unfortunately it's not all bad. In amongst the horrifyingly immature lyrics about DYING and KILLING ONESELF there's some rather good production going on, on her album. One song builds up with big squelchy synths and another has some rather good melancholy strings. The piano is alright, and her vocals (whilst an acquired taste... if you ever acquire that taste) are sort of all right, in a kind of 'Joanna Newsom and PJ Harvey's transgendered love child' sort of way.
So we're kind of confused. On one side: childish pretention and terrible lyrics, on the other: rather nice production, the occasional melody and a sort of listenable voice. We wonder how this will pan out (i.e. if it actually WILL pan out at all). She went to the BRIT school but unfortunately has not received much, if any, hype and nothing she's done seems to have caught on much.
We hope she carries on creating, as long as she grows up a bit but we have this left to say: she is not and never will be Kate Bush. She makes Florence and the Machine look very tolerable.
As you can see here, Dan Black, hyped new artist for 2009, is not blessed with charm. When he's not proclaiming that he's recording his new album in a Parisian cellar (is it 17th or 18th Century...? Do make up your mind), he's laying claim to the fact that he sees himself as part of the lineage of great bands. He also thinks his music sounds like hip hop (it doesn't sound anything like hip hop) and that he is super-inspired by what "black [awkward pause] modern America is doing". Yes, Dan, it's alright to use the word 'black'.
You can listen to his music on his myspace/website/youtube and draw your own conclusions. He's not making the worst music in the world... but he's not making particularly good music either... and any redeemable qualities his music might have, have now been completely drowned out by the fact that, as you can see, he is a bit of 'confident' (read: arrogant). (Also... what does he say at the end of the video? That he wants to buy a bag of skank? Scat? Scag?)
Disclaimer Shiny & New is a music blog and as such we don't deal in gossip or rumours although we occasionally touch on them. Any speculation relating to an individual's sexual orientation or drug use is solely for comedic effect and not meant to be taken as fact or news. If you take issue with any of the information posted on this blog or believe any of the media to be copyright infringement please contact us at chazandlindy@googlemail.com detailing your complaint and we will happily take the offending item(s) down. We would point out that this is a non-profit blog and we make no money whatsoever from it, so, like, don't sue us.
Talking about Blue Roses without using hackneyed and tired clichés is quite hard, not because she isn't any good (she's bloody fabulous) but because she makes the kind of genuinely ethereal and otherworldly alternative folk, that is often mediocre, and occasionally amazing. In her case, obviously, she's the amazing brand.
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