Something for the Summer sir…?
Well, ok, the good weather’s now officially over, and we’ve had our longest day, but musically, the Summer’s just begun.
Take the Magic Numbers’s Heavenly - an ideal summer album if ever there was one. And rightly praised pretty much everywhere. It’s one of those albums that manages to sound like lots of things you’ve heard before, but still be distinctive. To me it sounds more than a little like a pepped-up Lambchop - which is no bad thing, because Lambchop, for all their charm, can often be just that little bit soporific. And then there’s more than a passing resemblence to the Thrills - but without all that mock-California nonsense. Anyway, it’s perfect summer pop: sort of like Pimms…goes down easily, but just enough of a kick to be worth your while.
And it wouldn’t be summer without Royksopp? Their latest - the Understanding is perfect music for the garden, early in the morning…just after you’ve got back from a club…or, more likely, these days while you’re burning burgers on a Sunday afternoon barbeque. Observer Music Magazine made The Understanding their album of the month. And it’s very lush and lovely and in its more full-blown moments would probably benefit from being listened to over great big headphones while lying on the grass. Get to it quick before the ad men get to it and make you sick of it.
Oh - and while we’re talking about Norwegian ambient/ dance/ whatever… someone at work told me to get into Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren band: so I bought Your New Best Friends. It’s a bit more squelchy than Royksopp…but really rather fine, none the less…definitely recommended.
Now, here’s a surprise one: Foo Fighters. You might know that their latest In Your Honour has two CDs, ‘one loud, one not so loud’. Basically, I reckon they accept that they’re now a bit too old to be doing the whole full-blown rawk-and-roll thing (basically, it’s just not dignified after 30…) and they turned up to the studio really want to make a nice gentle acoustic album. They soon realised, however, that this was a complete commercial non-starter…so they banged out the Loud cd to keep their fans happy, and bundled it in with acoustic one to keep themselves happy.
Anyway - it’s very nice: not what you’d expect at all…really quite subtle in places (I’m no Foo Fighters connoiseur, but subtlety isn’t something I normally associate with them - hell there’s even a bit of Bossa Nova in there), and much more interesting than the loud cd. Still, I reckon they’re ultimately a better loud band than quiet one.
Interestingly - the UK edition (on Amazon) spells ‘Honour’ with the ‘U’, I ordered a version from CD Wow that doesn’t have the ‘U’ in it. Is this standard practice…? Did they hold meetings to discuss it? Or did it just get changed by an eager proof-reader on this side of the Atlantic?