Pick of the week
Roots Manuva, Again & Again (Big Dada)
Perhaps it's because our damaged weather system can no longer decide what season it is from one day to the next, but this summer has been decidedly short on good-time sunshiney anthems. So here's the man his mum calls Rodney Smith to redress the balance, with this entirely irresistible slice of ska-tinged, good-timey hip-hop that is swollen up with horns and spidery guitar lines and comes packing a chorus that will be beerily hollered on every corner of Nitting Hill Carnival this weekend. That's the Guide - always first for contemporaneous references in reviews.
Joyriders Feat. Bros, Big Bros (Perfecto)
Only the wish to preserve the matchless reputation for serious music criticism that the Guide has forged for itself over the years, thanks to the efforts of genii like myself, prevents me from making this the pick of the week. Because it really is brilliant. And, more to the point, it really is the theme music to Big Brother, with the vocal line - scarcely even treated - to When Will I Be Famous by Bros over the top. The result is inexplicably euphoric and may result in a critical re-evaluation of Bros themselves, and the posthumous recognition that Cat Among The Pigeons deserves.
The Subways, I Won't Let You Down (Warner)
The Subways clearly take themselves very seriously, which is all the more reason for the rest of us to be flip and disdainful about their oeuvre. I Won't Let You Down thankfully makes this very easy, because for all its pained vocals, squalls of feedback and pummelling drums, it sounds for all the world like Hard-Fi's Living For The Weekend with a slightly larger pair of rock bollocks. There's an unexpectedly lovely middle-eight bit that hints at a lighter touch but then it's on with the bludgeoning and back to the ho hum.
Does It Offend You Yeah?, Dawn Of The Dead (Virgin)
Not content with having the worst band name in the history of popular music, the Offendyous now choose to besmirch the good name of George A Romero's meisterwerk to boot. Given the overall wretchedness of their canon, however, Dawn... is actually quite tolerable, having a nice, clean, 1980s sheen, slap bass that wouldn't be out of place in a Seinfeld segue and synth drums that call to mind the long-forgotten likes of Sly Fox and Red Box. Or possibly Living In A Box. One of those 1980s "Box" bands, anyway. Entirely inoffensive, which is quite ironic really.
Lykke Li, Breaking It Up (Ll Recordings)
This is annoying. Tricksy, absurdly mannered, coquettish vocals jostle for pole position on the annoyance podium with a shrill, insanely irritating girl-choir chorus and a perfunctory tippy-toe hip-hop beat, and the whole thing combines to be the aural equivalent of those weird Oriental girls in Hoxton who dress like Marie Antoinette. Yeah, those. Its creator claims that Breaking It Up "is about how my creativity is keeping me from having a steady relationship". She's right, but only in the sense that she might get a bloke if she wasn't so shit.
