28th June 1999


Single of the Week

"Coffee + TV" by Blur

The poppiest track off 13, "Coffee + TV" shares the same kind of simple and addictive tune as "Tender" (although it doesn't quite manage to emulate that track's cosmic transcendence). Words penned and sung by Graham Coxon, the single is a pleasantly fuzzy 5-minute indie guitar song, punctuated with moments of chainsaw guitar which stop the track from becoming too bland. The kind of song that gives you a warm feeling inside, but which also provides a few moments of heartburn just to remind you that it's an indie art rock animal at heart. Superb video, too - I want one of those milk cartons now.

Interestingly, the b-sides spread over both CDs are remixes of LP track "Bugman", one mixed by each band member. So, if we go on the premise that the remix reveals the originator's personality: Damon is surreal ("X-Offender" is Clockwork Orange soundtracked by a stoned Kid Creole & The Coconuts); Dave is undisciplined (sorry Dave, but "Coyote" is what you would expect from a drummer let loose in a room with too many buttons to press); Alex is cool ("Trade Stylee" is an effortlessly cheesy and bouncy big disco biscuit of a mix); and Graham...well Graham is just Graham ("Metal Hip Slop" is the least accessible but probably the most accomplished and interesting, all relentless monumental beats and acid loops).

The very fact that a band care (and are talented - even Dave) enough to remix their own material should tell you something: Blur are very special indeed, and you should love them with all your heart.

Rating: 10/10

The Rest

"Awful" by Hole

Hole are the sonic equivalent of a character played by Juliette Lewis: white trailer trash, wearing ripped jeans and a dangerous smile. Marvellously debauched and seductively dirty ("swing slow sweet cherry, make it awful, you're ripe for the picking, you're so awful", "Oh just shut up, you're only sixteen"), "Awful" sits resplendent atop a mighty wall of guitar on which Courtney Love's cigarette-smoking vocals are painted like a gang's spraycan slogan. And yet - and this is where Hole distinguish themselves from a host of grunge metal pretenders - something innocent and beautiful lives at the song's core, shining like a candle burning in the eye of a hurricane.

A gut-wrenchingly visceral live version of "She Walks On Me" is first b-side, a four minute warning tearing up the seats and burning the house down. The video to "Malibu" follows, perfect visuals to another rough diamond of a track. Over on CD2, a stoned and dethroned live "Miss World" totters about on high-heels on cheap whiskey, and the video to "Celebrity Skin" exudes vampiric sex appeal and attitude.

Rating: 9/10

"Bring It On" by Gomez

Meanwhile, in another part of town...Gomez have grown on me somewhat, since their debut material first left me roundly unimpressed (sad lads with too much time on their hands and too much access to bad record collections), but now - and after much exposure to "Whipping Piccadilly" - I am much more sympathetic to the Gomez cause.

Still a bit studied and wispy beard stroking for my true devotion, "Bring It On" is still fantastically hazily laid back and mosquito-dodging, floating along on a decaying raft through the everglades whilst Tom Waits sails past on top of a slowly sinking piano.

"Dire Tribe" (ho ho - another example of the band's potentially irritating smugness) is prime-cut of Gomez, funky piano led mayhem soundtracking a hymn to artificial substances ("prozac is better, viagra I got, feel much better, paracetemol and codeine"). "M57", a slowie, shows another side to the melting-pot of styles that make up the band: an almost country-style ballad that carries you off gently on waves of effects-laden guitar.

Gomez are the kind of band "Later With Jools Holland" was invented for (and I can't make up my mind whether or not that's a bad or a good thing...)

Rating: 7/10

"Word Up" by Melanie G

Melanie G takes the old Cameo classic and swaps its big red codpiece for a skintight PVC catsuit, dragging it into late 90s Missy Eliott territory in the process. Backed up with a video so deviantly scary it would make Baby Spice run off to her mum, "Word Up" reinforces Mel G's position as premier Solo Spice, just managing to edge out the big diva sounds emanating from a certain Miss Haliwell.

"Sophisticated Lady" is a shimmeringly sensual little number squeezed into the b-side, which is followed by "Tim's Dance Mix" of the a-side, changing it so slightly that you'd hardly notice. The package is rounded off by the black shiny video, not to be watched without your parents' permission...

Rating: 6/10

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