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Way Back Wednesdays: Black Sheep – “The Choice Is Yours”

July 28, 2021 — Leave a comment

Let’s see if this 91′ Hip-Hop classic still has any of it’s seminal wool. Let’s go Way Back!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The Choice Is Yours’ (LP) (Released on August 6th, 1991) (via Mercury Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke, and we’re both here for an in-depth look back at one of the sounds of the past that has been influential to the sounds of the present for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ – because its always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘The Choice Is Yours’ was an East-Coast Hip-Hope tune, released in 1991, that would have been inescapable at the time. It comes from the rap duo Black Sheep, who were formed in Queens, New York by Andres “Dres” Vargus Titus and William “Mista Lawnge” McLean, who were a part of the Native Tongues collective, which also included A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and The Jungle Brothers. The duo were only an act for six years together, having formed in 1989 and split up in 1995, due to creative differences, but, in that time, they made a mark with their hit single ‘Flavor Of The Month’ and their album ‘Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing’ from 1991, with the duo receiving attention in the East Coast Hip-Hop community for their intelligent, unique rhythms and their witty, sardonic lyrics. ‘The Choice Is Yours’ was arguably their biggest hit single from their aforementioned LP, ranking on #73 on VH1’s Greatest Hip-Hop songs poll and being notably used in a commercial for the 2010 Kia Soul. It was also used in popular films like ‘Step Up’ and ‘Lakeview Terrace’, as well as being used in video games like ‘True Crime: New York City’ and ‘Aggressive Inline’ too. It appeared on the album twice, with a ‘Revisited’ rework of the track also gaining massive popularity. Check out the OG version below.

Black Sheep’s ‘The Choice Is Yours’ famously sampled New Birth’s ‘Keep On Doin It’, ‘Her Favourite Style’ by Iron Butterfly, ‘Big Sur Suite’ by Johnny Hammond Smith, ‘Impressions’ by McCoy Turner and ‘I’d Say It Again’ by Sweet Linda Divine, as well as paying homage to Roger Miller’s ‘Engine Engine Number 9’ by quoting it in the post-bridge, and, the song itself was covered by The Bloodhound Gang in 1999, of all acts. Kicking off with the opening riff of “Who’s the Black Sheep, what’s the Black Sheep?”, Vargus and McLean quickly talk about combating early-90’s racism with punchy rhymes like “The styling is creative/Black Sheep of the Native/Can’t be violated, or even decepticated” and call to the local community of musicians for a plea to unity, riffing “I got brothers in the Jungle/cousins on the Quest” in reference to the Native Tongues collective. They also talk about the gain that developing their own work provides for them, spitting “Black Sheep, get play like the Sony innovator/Never the traitor, party inflater” over the top of the thick basslines in the speedy second verse. The references to earlier songs are blatant and mimic sampling, layering some denotative lyricism with the fast delivery of the vocals, and adding some Boom-Bap production to the diverse vocals. It has a slightly rough and aggressive quality to it, with subtle Vinyl scratches and brief Horn arrangements whipping up a Jazz influence for the smoky beats to conjure up a slightly dark and late-night mood. The bass really kicks in during a fast set of verses to match the uptempo rap vocal delivery, and there are a couple of twangy licks on the guitar here and there, within the soundscape, to call back to early Funk. Understated, chiming and melodious, the shimmering vibe of ‘The Choice Is Yours’ was drastically different to the ‘Revisited’ remix that appeared later on the same album. A classic cut with bars and beats that slice easily like a Knife.

  • Pictured: Black Sheep (Andres Vargus Titus & William McLean) (Date n/a) (via Paul Natkin/Getty Images)

That brings us to the end of the page for another day! Thank you for the support, and please feel free to reconvene on the site again tomorrow for some brand new music tomorrow. It comes from one of the brightest stars on the UK’s Bedroom Pop circuit, and BBC Radio 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq seems to be a big fan of the tune too, which has received airplay on his shows. He describes himself as a “Lo-Fi Pop noodler” who writes witty music about Patrick Swayze, Pizza toppings and defunct TV game shows.

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Scuzz Sundays: Feeder – “Just A Day”

July 25, 2021 — Leave a comment

After hearing this for the 1,000th time, you’ll be getting Fed Up of it. It’s Scuzz Sunday!

  • Pictured: Grant Nicholas (Lead Vocals/Lead Guitar/Piano/Keys), Taka Hirose (Bass Guitar/Occasional Backing Vocals) and Mark Richardson (Drums/Percussion) (2006) (Photo via TheDailyRecord.co.uk)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke, writing to you with another new entry in our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ feature, as we rekindle the Pop-Punk of the past in a bid to see whether the anthemic tunes that we all once heard on the Scuzz TV channel can still hold a candle to quality and value in these more modern times, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music each day! Feeder are a Welsh rock band formed in Newport in 1994 who are one of the few 90’s Brit-Pop era to have continually found success long after the sell-by date that similar bands fell victim to, with an accumulated number of 25 singles to reach the top 75 of the UK Singles Chart between 1997 and 2012. The peak of the now-duo’s commercial success saw Feeder win two Kerrang! Awards (in 2001 and 2003) and they were inducted into the mainstream publication’s own ‘Hall Of Fame’ in 2019. The band have since seen changes to their line-up, as drummer Mark Richardson left the band in 2009 to join a reformed Skunk Anansie, and the group’s previous drummer, Jon Lee, was tragically found dead in his home in Miami from Suicide in 2002. ‘Just A Day’ was notable for becoming their final single with Lee, and also known for it’s video, which saw fans jumping around in their bedrooms in home footage alike to an old repeat of ‘You’ve Been Framed!’ on ITV 2. ‘Just A Day’ was only ever released as an EP with a cover of The Police’s ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’ as the B-side of the release, but it has become a fan-favourite at their live sets, and has sold a staggering figure of over 100,000 copies in both physical copies and digital downloads combined. Time to give it a spin below.

A battle cry against loneliness and isolation from the Welsh rockers, Feeder’s ‘Just A Day’ reached the #12 spot on the UK Singles Chart, where it stayed in the Top 20 for four weeks on the trot, and it was later included on their compilation LP ‘The Singles’ in 2006, making it the only time that the radio edit of ‘Just A Day’ was available to buy on an album. As a single, there was also a limited run of the track on an orange Vinyl, including a rare remix of ‘Just A Day’ from Brian Serper as the A-side, although the differences in this version were very subtle. As for the successful original, ‘Just A Day’ is a very radio-friendly affair that would not sound out of place on a daytime Radio X or BBC Radio 2 programme. We get a cheerful whistling intro, hugely upbeat guitar riffs and arena-sized Drum sequences, while Grant Nicholas’ vocals come across as sardonic, with lyrics like “Feel my head explode from a night of Gin/I guess you think it’s funny now” and “Who’s gonna catch me?/When I’m coming down to hit the ground again” that are delivered with a touch of sarcasm and bitter emotion. Lyrics like “I don’t wanna drink/Don’t want to be a clown” touch on sobriety, and the swooping chorus of “All by myself/Waking up at twelve in my clothes again” adds a touch of wit to the themes of picking up the pieces of your life after straying down a darker path. Nicholas’ vocals are decent, with a brisk pace and a series of relatable lines that should connect with a large crowd of more casual music listeners. The rest, I’m sorry, was a very two-star rated type of affair for me. There’s nothing offensive about it, but there was just nothing that made much of an attempt to really hook me. There’s no experimentation here, with the band sticking to a tried-and-tested formula of soaring guitar riffs and pop-oriented hooks. I never felt there was a great amount of variation here, but the rhythms are pretty catchy in places. The “doo-doo-doo-doo” sections got a little irritating, however, and got to the point of just feeling like filler to pass the time and fill a gap, and not a lot else. The tune has a great energy and a fairly good flow, but the lyrics and the instrumentation simply does nothing intriguing with these elements. The track perfectly fits the video’s vibe of folks jumping around in their bedrooms, but that’s also seen as a downside in a way, because it shows a lack of much thoughtfulness in the sound. It was, overall, tolerable enough. It just isn’t something that I can see myself coming back to. It was playing a bit too safe for me, with a lack of interesting influences to elevate beyond it’s fun, casual radio hit barrier.

  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Singles’ (Compilation LP) (Released on May 15, 2006) (via BMG/Echo)

Well, that leaves us to the end of the road for today. Thank you for joining me, and please feel free to check back up on the site tomorrow for the start of another week’s worth of musical musings. Tomorrow’s pick veers to a different genre, as we hear from one of the most important Black voices of our current Jazz, Funk and Soul landscape, with a new track from a Michigan-born singer-songwriter known for his self-described “Slop ‘N’ Soul” style of combining old-school Gospel, Blues, Country and R&B elements into his style. He backed CeeLo Green, and he played in Night Sun.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Definition Of Sound – “Wear Your Love Like Heaven”

July 21, 2021 — 2 Comments

If you’d asked in 1991 – I would not know the meaning of the word. Let’s go Way Back!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Moira Jane’s Cafe’ (Single) (Released in 1994) (via Circa Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke, and I hope that you are ready to take things down a notch for your daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! For ‘Way Back Wednesdays’, we revisit one of the sounds from the past that influenced those of the present, or an oddball rarity that may have slipped by the radar. ‘Wear Your Love Like Heaven’, however, was something that I swiftly noticed on an old repeat of ‘TOTP 1991’ on BBC Four, and so you know what we’re probably getting into here. The tune seems a little forgotten, and I admittedly couldn’t find out a great amount about it on the internet. It was released in 1991 by Definition Of Sound, a London-based Soul and Dance duo made up of Kevin Clark and Don Weekes, who collaborated with musicians including ‘The Red King’ Rex Brough and, eventually, Michael Spencer. The single performed decently, reaching the #17 spot in the UK Singles Chart at its peak, and reaching the #28 position of the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. Another notable hit of theirs was 1992’s ‘Moira Jones Café’, which also reached the UK Top 40 and later hit #1 on that specialist chart in the US. Let’s get a blast from the past below.

Despite sharing the same title, Definition Of Sound’s ‘Wear Your Love Like Heaven’ was not a cover of Donovan’s 1967 Psych-Funk classic, but, if you listen closely to the chorus, the duo obviously used a key sample from that track. I also read that it was used in an episode of The Simpsons where Homer goes on an acid-filled psychedelic trip in his mind. This sounds like the sort of obscure 70’s record that The Avalanches could have used for a sample on ‘Wildflower’, as quick sample work and the pastiche House structure with playfully pitched vocals call back to the upbeat, laidback Hip-Hop sounds of De La Soul and the old-school Trip-Hop beats reminiscent of Mos Def. There’s a call back to A Tribe Called Quest in terms of the vaguely Jazz elements, and although I’m not certain that I would categorize the whole recording as Hip-Hop, as such, it’s more of an energetic Psych-Soul tune with a knack for rapping. More or less, it’s a connected thread of breakbeat elements from a selection of styles. It’s not an entirely derivative collage of past sounds, however, because there’s a hint of Fat Boy Slim to the easygoing, roughly Disco sound, and the kooky vocal samples add a nice level of individual personality to the mix. The lyrics aren’t much to write home about, with rapped verses about uniting the world around ourselves and working together to create a sense of heaven creating an optimistic mood that, while a slightly generic effort, fulfills its purpose and refrains from overstaying it’s welcome too much. For me, the lead vocals work pretty decently almost 30 years later, with an early flair of Chicago House and the brightness of the Sunshine Pop style giving the relaxed tempo enough good material to bounce off. It certainly nodded appreciatively to the East Coast for their hip-hop scene, and the combo of the Bass and Drums hardens the melodies up just a slight bit. On the whole, this was surprisingly better than I had expected. There’s nothing about it that feels incredibly unique on paper, but it’s an eclectic mix of clear influences which jangle together effectively. It’s inspired enough. The production is very early-90’s, but it never felt too outdated, as such. It may not have rewritten the dictionary, but it is water-tight when the parts are pieced together.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Love And Life: A Journey With The Chameleons’ (LP) (1991) (via Circa Records)

That’s all the ‘love’ that I have to give to you today, but, please feel free to join me yet again tomorrow for some more music. Tomorrow’s pick brings some female voices to our week, as we review a recent track from a rising-star female-led Psychedelic Rock 4-piece band who met while attending Tufts University on the borders of Medford and Somerville in the US where the members had all lived and played together until 2016.

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Today’s Track: Pizzagirl – “Car Freshener Aftershave”

July 19, 2021 — Leave a comment

Love a bit of 80’s soft-Rock or 00’s Psych-Pop? You’ll want a Pizza this! New post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Softcore Mourn’ (LP) (Released on July 16th, 2021) (via Heist Or Hit Records)

A good afternoon to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for a brief respite away from the scorching heat for your daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Monday’s music comes from Liverpool’s Liam Brown, who has recorded his material under different names over the years, but his current and most notable solo project is Pizzagirl. He goes all-in on that theme as well, recording his brand of Indie Pop and R&B-infused Psych-Rock from his bedroom, which he calls his “Beatzzeria”. His influences include The Orielles, Grimes, David Byrne, Ariel Pink, and he loves a bit of Kelly Clarkson too. The follow-up to 2019’s ‘First Timer’, his second album ‘Softcore Mourn’ was released over the past weekend via Manchester’s Heist Or Hit independent label. It finds him venting out his own lovelorn frustrations of 21st century dating and pulling in some elements of Vaporwave. Check out the lead single, ‘Car Freshener Aftershave’, below.

After being away from Liverpool’s scene for a short break, Liam Brown had this to say about the new album: “Over the last year or so I’ve been screaming, sighing, crying and lying at my computer, which has manifested itself into my aptly titled second album Softcore Mourn”, adding, “The first single ‘Car Freshener Aftershave’ is a cold reminder to the internet that I still exist and I still haven’t figured that out yet. I’d say this is a break-up song” to his press release notes. Likened to LCD Soundsystem and The Postal Service by Gaby Mawson of Clunkmag.com, the new tune goes for a hint of nostalgia with 90’s dial-up tones and Prog-Synth sounds that appear directly lifted from the 80’s by complementing the retro, teen-hood aesthetic of the self-referential lyrics. The Chiptune-leaning vocals contort themselves around different layers of instrumentation that are continuously adjoined to the soundscape, as the percussive finger clicks and fizzy Lo-Fi synths emerge in the cutting edge of the fray at elusive key changes. Quirky lyrics, like “Where are the cameras? I must be punk’d” call back to outdated popular culture, and lines like “Well, if you’re gonna cry, then at least make it snappy/Cause once in a while, well, I kind of feel happy” add subtle sentimentality to the mix with a vocalist who feels socially pessimistic leading us on the charge. The chorus, led by “The California motel vomit/It’s like a Jackson Pollock” and “The California motel vomit/It wasn’t me, I promise”, emphasizes the quirky sense of his own self’s inertia. The ambient electronica bulk of the track feels like it’s been lifted from a falsely futuristic 80’s infomercial. Constructively, I think the production space gets a little too busy at some points, and I would have liked for his voice to come out more naturally at times. There’s more here to enjoy than not, though, with a fun edge of Prog-Synth and hyperactive visuals that make his breaking point seem believable, and there is clearly a welcome personality to this track. A stuffed, but delicious, Crust.

  • Pictured: Liam Brown (aka Pizzagirl) in a ‘Softcore Mourn’ PR shoot (2021) (Photo by HeistOrHit.com)

That’s all for today, but please feel free to join me again tomorrow for another slice of action. BBC Radio 6 Music are a huge fan of my next artist, who makes his debut appearance on the site tomorrow. The London-via-NYC songwriter and producer previously found his footing in the Future-Soul duo Voices Of Black, and he’s set to support Yard Act later this year ahead of the release of his new album – due in August.

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Scuzz Sundays: Lit – “My Own Worst Enemy”

July 18, 2021 — Leave a comment

Too hot for this, so I can’t think of anything else to write except from its Scuzz Sunday!

  • Pictured: A. Jay Popoff (Lead Vocals/Acoustic Guitar/Percussion), Kevin Baldes (Bass Guitar/Backing Vocals), Jeremy Popoff (Lead Guitar) & Taylor Caroll (Drums) (2017) (Photo via PledgeMusic.com)

It’s THAT time of the 7-day week again! I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and I’d like you to allow me to be your brief respite from the extremely humid weather that we’ve been experiencing here in the UK for another new entry in our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ library, the feature on the site where we revisit the Pop-Punk of the past, usually releases that were given airplay on the closed ‘Scuzz’ TV music video channel between the late-90’s and the mid-00’s. Making their debut appearance on the blog, Orange County rock band Lit’s ‘A Place In The Sun’ LP from 1999 is a very appropriate selection for our current climate. The band are still active today, with six full-length album releases to their belt, although they’re predominantly known for two hits: ‘My Own Worst Enemy’ and ‘Miserable’. I’ve read that Lit’s modern music, however, skews towards Country and Blues, which seems interesting enough. A certified-platinum single, the former hit was actually just a modest success upon release, but it subsequently continued to increase in popularity, and eventually reached #1 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart in the US, upwards of sales reporting over 1.3 million units. Check out the iconic music video, which was directed by Gavin Bowden and shot in a bowling alley, below.

A real example of their Power Pop and Alternative Rock wheelhouse, Lit’s ‘My Own Worst Enemy’, according to guitarist Jeremy Popoff, was “the result of waking up and realizing you screwed up the night before”, and vocalist A. Jay Popoff said the track was “the combination of many, many incidents”, since he had gotten into hot water for public nudity in the late-90’s following a reported incident that he sang this song nude in the studio once. Either way, it did pretty well for itself. It followed the trends of peer acts like Blink-182 and Bowling For Soup for the time, but there’s an attempt at sentimental value during the verses. Lyrics like “Please tell me why my car is in the front yard, And I’m sleeping with my clothes on” and “Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk?/I didn’t mean to call you that” convey these ideas simply. The chorus is more involving for the self-reflection aspect, with a lower tempo compared to the verses, as Popoff sings “It’s no surprise to me/I am my own worst enemy” and “I came in through the window last night/And you’re gone” with a clear delivery. That’s largely it. The guitar riffs are pretty catchy, with some more Grunge-oriented patterns dominating the chorus. There’s some neat backing vocals, too, with the band adding some airy harmonies to the post-bridge towards the end. Overall, though, this feels perfectly pedestrian and remarkably perfunctory. It’s fine, but the instrumentation is too basic to overcome it’s repetitive nature, and the lyrics don’t offer much substance to latch onto. Robust, if generic, stuff, and so it feels really mechanical and it fails to stand out from what Weezer or Smash Mouth were making at the time. It would have sounded perfectly decent on the radio, but it’s not something that I’d want to make a point of listening to a whole album of songs for. Simply that ‘fine’ song from the time.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for ‘A Place In The Sun’ (Released on February 23, 1999) (via RCA Records)

That’s all for now! I’ll be back tomorrow, as always, for business as usual. Please feel free to join me for new music from the current solo project of Liverpool’s Liam Brown, who has recorded his music under several monikers over the course of his musical career. He cites the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Ariel Pink and Janet Jackson as his biggest influences, and his latest album, ‘Softcore Mourn’, is out now via Heist Or Hit Records.

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Today’s Track: Holly Humberstone – “The Walls Are Way Too Thin”

July 17, 2021 — Leave a comment

Someone really had some relatable lyrics to write in the ‘New Normal’. New post time!

  • Pictured: Holly Humberstone with Dave Bayley (from Glass Animals) (2021) (Photo via DIYMag.com)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s time for your daily track on the blog, just like always, because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! A 21-year-old singer-songwriter from Grantham, England – Holly Humberstone is being tipped by the higher powers that be to be one of the biggest young homegrown talents to break out in the near future, with performances on US talk shows and her performance on the ‘BBC Introducing’ stage of Glastonbury Festival, back in 2019, giving her the platform to display her songwriting skills to large, casual audiences. Humberstone fell in love with music while studying at Liverpool’s Institute Of Performing Arts from April 2019, and Damien Rice’s debut album ‘O’ is considered by her to be her ‘first favourite album’, also citing similar peers like HAIM and Ben Howard as big influences. Prickling ears with her self-released 2020 EP, ‘Falling Asleep At The Wheel’, Humberstone has inked a record contract with major label Polydor Records, and also a publishing deal with Universal Music to bring her upcoming second EP, ‘Emotional Grim Reaper’, to the big leagues when it launches in November. She usually writes about her experiences of feeling like an outsider when moving away from her childhood home, and these themes of isolation and long distance are explored again in her BBC Radio 1-playlisted tune ‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’. Give it a shot with her ‘Later With Jools Holland’ live session.

“The writing for the second EP has been really fun because I’ve been able to experiment and expand my little sonic universe”, Holly Humberstone told DIYMag in an interview about her forthcoming new releases earlier in the year, “I’m constantly trying to be better than my first song, and I think it’s a million times better than my first EP”, she noted. Written in a time where she would take long train journeys to get terribly drunk with her friends as a way of escapism from claustrophobia and living in a small, dive London flat alone, Humberstone’s ‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’ falls into a Bedroom Pop space where it’s great listening for when you feel stuck in your mind, or a place, and want to get out, as she vents out on her frustrations and negative mind-set at the time. She addresses a close friend with her lyrics, as she sings lines like “There was a possible connection on the table for a second/Then she made such an entrance/Can’t stand all the tension/Can you?” in the first verse to discuss social awkwardness and her uncertainty towards a life away from her homely comforts. The second verse, with lyrics like “You’re blowing smoke rings in the corridors/I feel so cold/The house is full, but I’m alone” talks about her suspended distance from her close relationships with others. The pre-chorus sees her reach a peak, as she croons “The same old sad songs I cling to/Cause I just wanna be out of the picture” to signify her boiling point for mental health struggles. The instrumentation skews towards Alternative a little, but the glistening Synth backbeat and the energetic guitar chords keeps her grievances relatable to young listeners. A coming-of-age story about reclaiming your identity away from a bright past, the track is a catchy dark-tinged Pop tune that nicely defies the tropes of a sad commercial “Goth” song. To offer my constructive criticism, the studio version is a little reliant on vocal effects, for me. The production choice gives her a clear and slick delivery, but I always prefer hearing the natural voice of the singer because it makes me feel closer to them, rather than sounding similar to somebody else. It’s not a big deal, however, but just a matter of personal preference on my part. Otherwise, it makes for an engaging listen and it’s certainly above the average tier for the major label artists of today, for me. I like the purity of her songwriting and the 80’s vibe of the electronic beats gives it an uplifting energy, paired with some honest lyrical expressions, so the walls aren’t caving in yet.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Falling Asleep At The Wheel’ (EP) (Released on Aug 14, 2020) (via Self-Released)

Thank you for sticking with me until the end once again! It’s ‘Scuzz Sundays’ tomorrow, and we’re complementing the absolutely boiling hot weather (here in the UK) with a summer-themed Pop-Punk anthem from the late 1990’s. The Pop-Punk band in question are from Orange County, California who have released six studio albums, and their drummer took part in an episode of MTV’s ‘Cribs’.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Feargal Sharkey – “A Good Heart”

July 14, 2021 — Leave a comment

Let’s see whether this Northern Irish OBE jumped the ‘Shark’ in 1985. New post time!

  • Pictured: Casette Tape of ‘A Good Heart’ (Released in 1985 in UK) (1986 in US) (via Virgin Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s ‘Way Back Wednesdays’, meaning that we’re diving back into the sounds of the past that have been influential to those of the present, not forgetting that it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Feargal Sharkey’s ‘A Good Heart’ is a straight-up Pop tune from 1985 that my mother says she used to own on casette tape, which she brought up during an episode of ‘Top Of The Pops 1991’ on BBC Four, although I’ve never listened to the song at all before until now. Sharkey is an OBE, and he is a Nothern Irish singer from Derry who was mostly known for being the lead vocalist of rock band The Undertones, who famously performed ‘Teenage Kicks’, which was late-great BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel’s favourite single of all-time. I believe that he’s much less musically active now, but, in more recent times, he has taken up differing roles in the UK’s commercial music industry, receiving several awards as an advocate and some honours for his charity work in the Arts sector. I caught a recent article which says Feargal Sharkey has been campaigning to preserve the rivers of Cambridgeshire, and that’s my area, and so it really is a small world. Released by Virgin Records as the lead single from his self-titled debut album, ‘A Good Heart’ reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart upon its release. Get a blast from the past below.

A fun fact about Feargal is that he is the chairman of the Amwell Magna Fishery. As a lifelong fly fisherman, Feargal has actively campaigned against the pollution of Chalk Streams, and the regulations of the Water industry which impact the UK’s water resources. He gave the Keynote address at The Rivers Trust Autumn Confererence in 2018, and, in 2010, he appeared on Wired’s list of ‘The Wired 100’ for his contributions to nature at #56. So, you could say that he’s got ‘A Good Heart’ in those respects. The tune itself is probably what you’d expect to see on ‘That’s 80’s’ or an old repeat of ‘Top Of The Pops’ on BBC Four, because it sounds pretty normal for it’s time. Lyrics like “Highest risk of striking out/The risk of getting heart/Still, I have so much to learn” and “My expectations may be high/I blamed it on my youth/Soon enough, I’ve learned the painful truth” get the ideas of trial/error in dating across simply and easily, with a melody that skews towards rougher Country a little bit, with the twangy guitars and the shimmering drums, and upbeat Keyboard melodies that get a Funk influence across a little. Looking back, I would say that the vocals are a bit woeful on this. It’s not that Sharkey is a particularly bad singer, but his strong Derry accent and his roots in classic Punk feel a little jarring or lost on this one. The chorus is mostly done by the backing singers, however, and the arrangement pulls him a few favours. Overall, I reckon he, or his label, was trying a bit too hard to just simply ‘have a hit’ with this one, which doesn’t typically sit very well with me. I think the track is also a little confused in what it wants to be, with the guitar solo in the middle suggesting a Glam-Rock direction, and the happy-go-lucky guitar rhythms indicating some retro Funk. I quite enjoyed my time with it, however. It’s catchy enough, and the different elements of the instrumentation give it decent enough heft to not seem tiresome. The punchy energy carries through to the end, and the chorus is a sweet slice of teenage pop with a Soulful feel. A slight jumble of ideas, but a charming earworm of 80’s Pop.

  • Pictured: Feargal Sharkey reporting to Cambridge City Council (2019) (CambridgeIndependant.co.uk)

There’s your blast from the past! Please feel free to join me again tomorrow as we revert our attention back to some brand new music. Tomorrow’s pick comes to you from a lesser-known Indie Rock band, who have a new album out on Ba Da Bing! The female-fronted group, from Melbourne, once had SXSW’s most-played song of their ‘Morning Show’ in 2019, and they have also recorded a live session for Seattle’s KEXP.

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Scuzz Sundays: Interpol – “Say Hello To The Angels”

July 11, 2021 — Leave a comment

In 2002, Interpol were knock, knock, knocking, on Heaven’s Door. It’s Scuzz Sunday…

  • Pictured: CD Copy of ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’ (Released in November 2001) (via Matador Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here – allow me to be your only escape from anything regarding football today, as we delve into the Pop-Punk of the past for another addition to our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ library, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! You’ve probably heard of Interpol before. They are a pretty famous band, after all, and a group that deserves a little more credit than they may usually get in terms of bringing Post-Punk music back into the consciousness of mainstream audiences in the 2000’s, although it can be easy to box them in to an ‘Indie Boom’ category with Editors or White Lies. ‘Say Hello To The Angels’ was one of the first singles they released, along with the B-side of ‘NYC’ on a 7″ Double Single in 2003, and it reached #65 on the UK Singles Chart. The two tracks also appeared on Interpol’s debut album ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’, which was awarded the #1 spot on Pitchfork’s list of the Top 50 Best Albums of the year when it saw the light of day in 2002. A music video for ‘Say Hello To The Angels’ was never produced, but it’s still become one of the Manhattan musicians’ best-known singles. Across their career, Interpol have released six albums, and regularly release fresh material today. ‘Say Hello To The Angels’ with them at Glastonbury 2014 below.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the release of their debut album ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’, Interpol released an expanded version of that old record. Dubbed as the ‘Remastered Edition’, the re-release came with a disc of unreleased demo material, the bonus tracks that were previously only available on the International editions of the original release, and a DVD featuring the LP’s music videos and live performances. This breathed new energy into ‘Say Hello To The Angels’ because it reminded us of their roots: A good mish-mash of clear influences from other bands of a New-Wave or Gothic rock ilk. We’re greeted by a thick and fast intro of humming guitar lines, with a slight fuzz of distortion, that soon becomes a head-nodding riff enhanced by the dark drawling of Paul Banks’ wry vocals. Lyrics like “I want your silent parts/The parts that birds love/I know there’s such a place” and “This is a concept/This is a bracelet/This isn’t no intervention” are repeated with a catchy tenacity, as Banks discusses how a blooming relationship is allowing him to turn a new lead from a darker past, but it’s done in a way where it doesn’t feel particularly sweet or light-hearted. Paul Weller’s biting guitars and the progressive, bass forward sound point to influences like The Jam, Radiohead and Gang Of Four. The retro-casual style of the chorus is another highlight of the track, and Banks repeats lyrics such as “But each night, I bury my love around you/You’re linked to my innocence” with a woefully abtruse poise. Paired with the black, three-piece suits of their live costumes and the headstrong punch of the melodic Snare groove, we’re left with a head-nodding rock tune that pairs the ethical Post-Rock of Fugazi with the book-ending harmony of Robert Smith. It’s a perfect blend, and it would be easy to assume they were another Manchester band from their homage to the UK’s Post-Grunge and Experimental Rock scenes. Almost 20 years later, this is a cracker of a modern classic.

  • Pictured: Paul Banks (Lead Vocals/Bass Guitar/Rhythm Guitar), Daniel Kessler (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals) and Sam Fogarino (Drums/Samples/Percussion) (2018) (Photo taken from XSNoise.com)

That’s all I have lined up for you today! Another daily upload is on it’s way to you tomorrow, meanwhile, and it comes from a London-based electronic music producer who was formerly known as Deadboy, and he notched up a solid reputation for himself on the cross-section of UK dance music history with several popular releases on underground Techno labels including Numbers and Well Rounded.

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Today’s Track: Eliza Shaddad – “Now You’re Alone”

July 10, 2021 — Leave a comment

I think we’re alone now. There doesn’t seem to be anyone around. It’s new post time!

  • Pictured: Cover for ‘The Woman You Want’ (LP) (Available from July 16, 2021) (via Rosemundy Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here – and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, just like usual, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! New music comes from Eliza Shaddad today, a Scottish-Sudanese film composer who says that she grew up in seven different countries, and she is currently based in the UK. She moved to London, where she studied Jazz at Guildhall School Of Music and Drama. For a number of years, Shaddad has been rubbing shoulders with the industry’s more widely known figures, including support slots on tour with the likes of Keane, Kae Tempest and Lucy Rose, and she even recorded her first EP, 2014’s ‘Waters’, with Jack Patterson from Clean Bandit, and she has also appeared on Sky News and BBC News to speak about the music industry in 2020. Her follow-up to 2018’s debut album, ‘Future’, Shaddad is set for exciting times ahead with the release of her sophomore LP, ‘The Woman You Want’, next week via her own indie label, Rosemundy Records. If you live near me in Cambridgeshire, it’s worth noting that she is scheduled to be playing a gig at The Portland Arms in November. Grab a sampler with ‘Now You’re Alone’ below.

‘Now You’re Alone’ was mixed by Grammy Award winning producer Sam Okell (PJ Harvey, Celeste) and later mastered by Tim Rowkins (Rina Sawayama), both helping Shaddad to show her vulnerable and vitriolic sides with the guitar-driven track. She says, “I was feeling apart from the world and raging against that, watching the news every day and feeling like I wanted to scream, so I wrote a song you can scream-sing to”, about the single in her own amusing words in her press notes. Backed by a Country influence and a slowly swelling orchestral section, Shaddad goes for powerful vocals and a soaring presence on a track which was clearly born from her thoughts during the Covid-19 pandemic. The instrumentation is relatively simple, but her background in cinematic soundtracks clearly shows in the ways in which the sweltering dynamics unfold. The bridge section towards the end, after all, bears no resemblance to minimalism. Lyrically, Shaddad is constantly questioning the motives of a love that has run it’s course, and continues to damage her mind-set as she navigates new dangers in life. She sings the likes of “I tried to warn you, I swear I tried/But if I don’t matter, babe I don’t believe we could have survived” and “Now you’re alone/And the world has turned it’s back on you” with enthusiasm and angst, while the verses deal with her feelings of loss and neglect. There’s a lot of emphasis placed on the emotionally-driven vocals, and the instrumentation reaches it’s boiling point when we emerge into the heightened intensity of the finale. I enjoy how the acoustic melodies and the String-enhanced beats softly build into the more aggressive, personal moods as the lyrics continue to gradually develop, and it’s easy to tell that Shaddad worked very hard to achieve these effects with her producers. There’s a little bit of Pop here, but there’s also some Folk influences and a Steel-like Country sound which gives this a decent amount of heft. This is not entirely of my usual taste for music, but I felt it was pretty good. A crowd-pleasing Power-Pop ballad.

  • Pictured: Eliza Shaddad in an Artist Profile shoot for F-Word Magazine (2021) (Photo by Kim Jobson)

That’s all for now! Don’t miss out on my interview with Drug Store Romeos, which you can see on the homepage of the site right now! If you’re begging for new content, however, come back tomorrow for a new entry in our ‘Scuzz Sundays’ series. We’re skewing more towards Post-Punk this week, which makes for a refreshing change, for a track coming from one of the most notable names from the genre’s revival time in the 2000’s. Often compared to Joy Division and Editors, the band’s debut album took the #1 spot on Pitchfork’s list of the Top 50 Albums of 2002.

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Today’s Track: Cleopatrick – “Victoria Park”

July 8, 2021 — Leave a comment

Not in the words of a 90’s pop girl group, Cleopatrick. Coming at’chya. New post time!

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “BUMMER” (LP) (Released on June 4, 2021) (via Nowhere Special Recordings)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here – writing to you with another daily track on the blog, as you would expect, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Something loud and sharp for your Thursday, ‘Victoria Park’ was one of the singles released in the build-up to the release of the debut studio album, ‘BUMMER’, from the Canadian Hard Rock duo of Cleopatrick. This is the project of lead vocalist/guitarist Luke Gruntz and drummer Ian Fraser, who have been best friends ever since they were just 4 years old. At the age of 8, the guys developed a love for AC/DC together, and, later in their teenage years, continued to write and produce their own music, now for their indie label, Nowhere Special Recordings. Speaking about Victoria Park, the frontman Luke Gruntz explains: “It’s named after a real Victoria Park here in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. A place where Ian and I have both spent countless summer days and nights throughout our lives. It’s a green space that was named after Queen Victoria in an effort to impress the Crown, during a time where this town was so young and prosperous that they truly believed they could be chosen as the capital of Canada”. On that note, let’s give it a spin below.

“This song, and the album it comes from, is our offering. It’s our effort to impress”, Gruntz adds, “Making ‘BUMMER’ we actively spoke about it as if it would be the only chance we ever had to make an album. With this in the back of our minds, every note we played and every line I penned carried an enormous weight. ‘BUMMER’ is meant to capture what could be our last famous words”, on the June 4th release. Certainly a mission statement for their recent record, ‘Victoria Park’ feels like a solid mesh of other bands. There’s a bit of shoe-gaze in here, some Arctic Monkeys in here, and even a little Sleaford Mods in here with the rhythmic Spoken Word pieces in the quieter sections. This is music designed to be played on full blast of the volume meter, as the band’s fuzzy guitar riffs crash against one another with a hefty blow of distortion. Lyrically, sequences like “I’m the only real motherf***er in this town” stick out, where Gruntz questions all of the ‘fake friends’ who only want to hang around him now that Cleopatrick is gaining some traction with Kerrang. “My misunderstood famous last words/Will be the only thing that still stands” is another defiant rally call for establishing the core values of the band in facing adversity that may come from the music press or snobbish listeners. The tolerance level for soft sounds is low, with thunderous drumming carrying the gritty melodies forward, while Gruntz’s lead vocals remain brittle and rugged. My quick elevator pitch for this would be “Canada’s answer to Royal Blood”, but it’s strange that I actually rather liked this in that sense, because, to be painfully honest, I personally don’t enjoy Royal Blood because I find them one-note and up themselves in comparison. Cleopatrick are bringing a grungier wall of sound to the table, and very subtle Grime influences with the quick-witted vocals and the darker variation of tones. It feels a little less stadium sound, and more graffiti-filled streets. When you listen to Cleopatrick on the surface, it’s easy to compare them to a lot of similar rooted acts. However, when you listen more actively, its original enough, and we’ve never had a rock band that are quite the same as them before. Overall, it’s perhaps of a slightly acquired taste, but I’m turning up that dial with no guilt. It could do with a tad more nuance, but I appreciate that it’s hectic and no-nonsense rock ‘n’ roll that hits very hard and quick. They’re on to something cool.

  • Pictured: Luke Gruntz (Lead Vocals/Lead Guitar) & Ian Fraser (Drums) (2021) (Photo via Position Music)

That’s all I have lined up for you today! Please join me again tomorrow for ‘New Album Release Fridays’ tomorrow as we finally lend the spotlight to the delayed debut album release of Drug Store Romeos. I also have a VERY special treat involving the band for you too, so you genuinely won’t want to miss out on tomorrow’s upload.

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