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‘I Believe’ – I Am Kloot
Website
Echo Records
One of the singles of the summer for sure, this
is a flattering pastiche of all that is pure pop perfection, mixing
delicately essential acoustic hooks that grab your attention and
draw you in closer to the flame like a moth with an out of date A-Z,
and more sinister, menacing lyrics that I have described elsewhere
as an anthem to the doomed youth of inner city living. A thrilling
extollation of the wonders of Shameless style inner city
council estates, of dumped mattresses and burnt out cars, of kids on
corners in hoodies and Burberry baseball caps, of teenage mums and
of discarded glue bags and used needles behind the bus station.
I Believe in the hallelujah chorus of the
shopping malls.
It is impossible not to sway along to this
record, a perfect tableau of the imperfections that blight our
world, our lives and our public parks. It has summer days and
sunshine written right through it, beer gardens and cold lager,
disposable barbeques and food poisoning, dogs shagging in the street
and getting sunburned. This song is utterly uplifting and
unavoidably compelling, despite it’s inference to the run down
lifestyles of today’s Britain it is impossible not to feel positive
during or after this three minutes of saccharine seeped subversion.
Somehow, I Believe would make standing in dog shit make you
smile, and what’s more it comes in three versions – can you want
anymore? – well if you do you get new song Haunted House as
well, any more would just be excessive.
Lifted from their recent long player Gods
and Monsters this song is one that you really should take a punt
on, if you’re unfamiliar with I Am Kloot, or you just want
something to make you feel better and don’t fancy the Prozac method
then I heartily recommend.
I have seen, and I believe...
Words by Johnny Mac
(more by this author)
‘To Die For’ – Undercut
Website
Echo Records
Undercut continue unabashed, unashamed and
unimpeded in their quest to deliver solid, gritty, hard faced and
intense melodic guitar driven quasi anthems, they are doing it well
and should be rightly proud. Despite intolerably lazy press
comparisons to U2, REM and the Manic Street Preachers, Undercut are
ploughing their own distinct furrow, real and valid reference points
are difficult to pin point, and indeed why should we? Surely it’s
more important to elucidate how a track feels, what it makes you
think of and how it effects how you look at the world on a day to
day basis. Who gives a shit whether or not they ‘..are the next U2’,
not me, that’s for sure and I would hazard that neither do Undercut.
The sound is that of a rather special and
distinct band who are looking directly at those everyday situations
that we have all either been embroiled in or had the displeasure of
watching from a safe distance, but the difference here is that
Undercut are approaching the everyday tales of the ordinary with a
thoroughly refreshing outlook. The title track here is a pounding
take on losing out on a girl to your best mate, the explosions of
guitar imitating your inner rage whist the pounding bass and drums
rhythmically direct your throbbing pulsating anger until it all
combines with an explosion of pain, resentment and six string guitar
that somehow seems to soothe.
B-sides So Beautiful and Backroom
are done no favours by being relegated to the minor side of the
record. Both are devastatingly exhilarating in their own right, the
former a subtly racy acoustic thrum, augmented beautifully by
soaring and gliding vocals and electric guitar; the latter a darker,
menacing and brooding which utilises its pulsating rhythmic patterns
to leave you feeling a certain empathy with its desperate and
desolate emotions.
A thing of certain beauty.
Words by Johnny Mac
(more by this author)
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