5th June 2000


Hello, hello, it's good to be back

Single of the Week

"Unintended" by Muse

Do we like them just because Radiohead aren't around at the moment? Perhaps, but no matter, especially when "Unintended" is such a heart-meltingly beautiful song. "You could be my unintended choice to live my life extended, you could be the one I'll always love" honey-drip the vocals and flocks of doves cry to the delicate mixture of falsetto vocals and arpeggio guitar. Taking two steps forward, then two steps back, "Unintended" starts at the bottom of the stairs, goes nowhere slowly, but still ends up at the top, tear-stained face shining and proud like the personification of the sun. Hyperbole, yes, but this is the kind of song that brings out the pseud in you. Few things come close. And yes, it may be music for people that wear black all the time, but what the hell - there ain't no colours in my wardrobe.

"Recess" takes a descending guitar motif and feeds it opium, letting it lie back on a black velvet couch as the bass rumbles and chords assault it lovingly. Vocals ascend higher than Andrew Montgomery's before his voice broke, then all hell / heaven breaks loose in a maelstrom of white noise that sticks its tongue in your ear til you pass out. Mmm, nice.

"Falling Down" is a live acoustic version recorded in Paris, which is the perfect setting for this gentlest and most melancholic of songs to stagger around Montmartre to with absinthe dripping out its veins. The video to "Unintended" closes the package, providing equally liquid visuals to the molten sounds of the single.

If Radiohead don't watch out, no-one will notice them when they come back...

Rating: 10/10

The Rest

"U.G.L.Y." by Daphne & Celeste

What exactly is punk then? Was it the Pistols, that brief flash of snot and glue that burnt so deeply into the musical psyche? Could be. Is it the likes of Offspring and Blink 182, bratting about in their sports shorts and spiky hair? Could be. Is it Henry, the mild-mannered janitor? But I digress. The tortuous point I am wasting your valuable time trying to make is that if punk is all about pissing off your elders and betters, then Daff and Cel are more punk than a bagful of Rancid Slipknots.

"U.G.L.Y. - you ain't got no alibi" go the playground lyrics, and these two (barely) pubescent grrrrlies bounce up and down like gleeful chipmunks on Shampoo's moldering corpse, whilst a bucktoothed hillbilly duels away at his banjo. The fact that it sounds exactly like their last one is not only unimportant, but also makes it even more perfectly punk than ever. And since when did lyrics come better than "Chicken legs, pig face, chin like Bubba - you ugly"?

Perfect.

The "Tomboy Mix" is next, strapping a huge crunchy acid beat and a few sticks of dynamite to the original's back, then standing well back.

Fantastic.

Then comes the "T-Total 'Make Over' Mix", taking tribal rhythms, psychobilly squelchy riffs, and the merest hint of the original, and shoving them up your butt.

Awesome.

You get the video too. Suffice to say, it's tremendous.

Daphne & Celeste are wonderful and I want to have their babies. So shoot me:

Rating: 9/10

"Another Pearl" by Badly Drawn Boy

Badly Drawn Boy treads a lonely path, guitar and beatbox strapped to his back as he heads off down indie's dusty highway. "Another Pearl" is just that, a sweetly realised tune wrapped lovingly around a just slightly off-kilter backing that has about as much chance of denting the charts as Daniella Westbrook has of getting her nose pierced. You've got to love this kind of music, that - without intending to sound patronising - sticks its head down below the ramparts, dodging any influences other than those buzzing around its own head like drunken fireflies. And in days when even your mum's heard of (and likes) most of the bands in the music papers (even Slipknot), that can only be a good thing. More power to his badly drawn elbow.

"Distant Town" also has much to love about it, being an alternatively sparse and claustrophobic number that trots along like a cowboy, then canters off like the fifth horseman of the apocalypse. "Chaos Theory" is experimentalism taken further than Bentley Rhythm Ace would even dare; an acoustic riff peppered with synth bleeps and whistles, laced with a drum pattern that sounds as though its been programmed by a random number generator. Then it rocks out and off into space at the end, which is the only real logical conclusion.

Rating: 7/10

"Coming Around" by Travis

Can you be self-effacing and smug at the same time? Ask Travis - they know the answer. First new track since that LP which sold more than any other record ever made put together and multiplied by ten, "Coming Around" is slightly more upbeat than "The Man Who"'s admittedly impressive pick n mix of melancholia, in a West Coast sun-drenched kind of way. Which is another way of saying it sounds like The Byrds, The Beach Boys and Teenage Fanclub. Harmonies drip, guitars surf, lickle Fran's voice soars: all the ingredients are there, but where's the soul?

"Just The Faces Change" is more music to impress your new girl/boyfriend to, by demonstrating that you don't just like all that weird noisy crap and that look, you really are just a big soft puppy at heart. "The Connection" is the best track on offer here, featuring a rumbling waterfall rhythm section which the rest of the song slowly tumbles helplessly over, like a bagful of kittens. Puppies? Kittens? I need my medicine.

The video's here too, and is a clever-clever bit of tomfoolery about a giant egg with legs. And that was before I took my medicine.

Your mum still loves them.

Rating: 4/10

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