"What do I mean to you? I'll show you if you want me to", sings Tim Burgess on "North Country Boy", a
gloriously blissed-out wall of rock-funk guitar, monolithic keyboard and molten vocals. Well, The Charlatans show us exactly what they mean to us
with this triumphant return after their recent tragedy. Often compared to the Stones, the comparison is deceptive: The Charlatans are much better. This, the perfect
taster for the summer, has me looking out the shades and tent for this year's festivals. Nigh-on faultless (nothing is faultless, not even The Charlatans), this is
as good as alternative guitar-based music gets.
"Area 51" is the first b-side, and is a marvellous rolling funk-off of an instrumental, the sort of thing you can imagine Huggy Bear
playing before he goes out for the night. The closing track "Don't Need A Gun", is a slow, lazy trip of a song. "Don't need a gun
to blow my mind", Tim sings. I'm not surprised - all he need do is listen to his own material to achieve that result.
Rating: 10/10
The Rest
And this is what Huggy Bear listens to when The Charlatans have finished. What makes this slamming monster of
a tune by dance giants The Chemical Brothers so titanic is not just the fantastic funk riff that runs throughout, but also
the range of explosive effects and percussive noises they hammer down on top. All manner of things are going on here:
grenades detonating as a police car driven by insane joyriders speeds past with the car stereo turned up so high it hurts. Inspirational.
Track 2, "Prescription Beats" is a rough take on the a-side, but with the thumping nuclear samples turned up to the max. It
nearly caused my speakers to fall over. The third track on offer here is "Morning Lemon", an experiment with a drum machine and
not much else. But as with most releases of this type, the a-side is the primary thing and for that alone it gets a big phat nine.
Rating: 9/10
J Mascis comes out of one of his regular lengthy hibernations with new material, all songs on this single taken from a forthcoming
film (Grace Of My Heart) inspired loosely by ex-Beach Boy Brian Wilson. This explains the tremelo and harmonies of beach slacker nodalong "Take A
Run At The Sun". Whilst totally different from the rest of Dinosaur Jr's stoned grunge material, Mascis' voice is umistakable, even when straying
into high-pitched California sunshine territory. Distinctive and evocative, this strange surf grunge is oddly compelling. I wonder if it will
start a new genre...?
"Don't You Think It's Time" sees the harmonies and pitch turned up even more, and "The Pickle Song" uses Mars Attacks-like
tremelo noises to great effect. A weird release to say the least, but I guess that's what you get when you cross Brian Wilson with J
Mascis.
Rating: 7/10
A less Britpop (gaaah, how I hate to use that word) offering from Cast, and therefore not immediately recognisable as Power and
his mob, this is nevertheless no better than some of the songs on The La's seminal LP. Not surprising perhaps, but you would
have hoped Power might have progressed a little by now and started to produce something a bit more innovative. Still, "Free Me"
is not a bad song in a shove-it-in-your-car-stereo kind of way, and if it ain't broke I guess there's no real reason to fix it.
"Come On Everybody" on the b-side (sadly not "C'Mon Everybody") is formulaic Cast (i.e. like the Monkees with more guitar
pedals) and not too exciting. "Canter" is up next, and is a bizarrely wimpy folk acoustic track that sounds as though it should be on Led Zep IV.
An acoustic "Free Me" closes an uninspiring release. Perhaps The Charlatans and The Chemicals have spoiled me this week, but
stuff like this is mediocre in comparison to say the least.
Rating: 5/10
Fortunately not about Chris Evans (and sadly not about Geri Spice), this is a disappointingly dull song. Maybe I was
expecting too much on the basis of the name, or maybe the point is to see them live, but this is nothing several hundred other
pale indie boy guitar combos haven't done before. Admittedly there is yet more Mars Attacks-y type tremelo in here, and
some half-hearted vocal yodelling, but ultimately it is nothing special. And Half Man Half Biscuit had better lyrics.
And oh God, the b-sides are worse.
Rating: 3/10
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