The Kills – U.R.A Fever
Previously, I have been really hard on the band. They are very hit and miss with me as sometimes its sounds all the same. “URA Fever” is the lead single from the bands new album “Midnight Brains” The song is not that much of a departure from the bands previous works but this song does come across a little better. Alison “VV” Mosshart vocals always sounded perfect for this type of music, she has that perfect howl for the dark and dirty riffs that guitarist Jamie “Hotel” Hince. “URA Fever” sounds like a mix of Primal Scream and Massive Attack and the results are great. It has that scary minimalistic electronic elements that Primal Scream once ruled the world with. On the verses, the vocal play between the two at times recalls a Massive Attack tune. It feels more like their first album and they got it right there and they got it right here.
By John Siwicki
Wombats, The – Moving To New York(Paul Van Dyk Remix)
The second go around for this single so for the review I decided to look at its bsides as they are very compelling. You have superstar/legend Paul van Dyk putting his touches on a hot new indie band. Its just a match-up you do not see very often. It starts off as a relaxing piece of European trance. But, when most of these rock songs get the dance treatment it just doesn’t sound right. I think the work that Paul did on the track was excellent, nice ambient piece of music and some added sounds of New York was nice. The vocals for the song just didn’t fit in well here, maybe a few more effects or something to make them blend a little better. Still, as remixes go and the bar isn’t very high it was worth a spin or two.
By John Siwicki
The Little Ones – Ordinary Song
I haven’t heard a song this bad in a very long time. California five piece are signed to Heavenly Records who have released records by such fine acts as Magic Numbers and Doves. So, naturally if you call your song “Ordinary Song” and release it as single its going to be opened up for some jokes. I did go in with an open mind and the first 3 seconds of the song made me openly laugh for a few seconds and once that happens its very hard to recover. The first few seconds of the song being “ordinary song, I love to sing along with you.” The hook and the bridge provide some nice harmonies but the lyrics are to bad that its very hard to over look. On the bright side, I have heard Electrelane’s remix of this song.
By John Siwicki
Wombats, The – Backfire at the Disco (KGB Remix)
It seems that the Liverpool boys are back at it again reissuing another single yet again. “Backfire at the Disco” was only release last May but it was in “limited” release so they feel the need to go at it again. We reviewed the single previous so lets take a look at one of the remixes on the single instead. The KGB had already remixed the boy before with “Let’s Dance To Joy Division” which, was already ripped for the remix. The mix is based around a lot of heavy bass and a cowbell hidden in the background. As the song progress more elements get introduced including some strange space aged effects. The problem is that the song runs about two minutes to long. I understand that the song is for the clubs but it just got boring after awhile.
By John Siwicki