A few bleeps and some naff poetry and before you know it, you’ve scooped Single of the Week, Liza Williams reports.
Golden Silvers: Arrows of Eros
A song for the summer, with poetic lyrics – ‘she had polka dots and moonbeams in her dreams and French fantasies on cinema screens‘ – and cute keyboard bleeps.
As catchy as hell in a Mystery-Jets–Two-Doors-Down-kinda-way.
Kid A: Wasnotwas
An original brand of electro pop from 20-year-old Anni T. The loops and her vocals sound effortless, which may have been given a helping hand by Dan Le Sac, who has been tweaking her debut EP.
The Big Pink: Stop the World
Harsh feedback and stark lyrics transform into a whirl of shoe gazey guitars and vocals. Soft but blokey at the same time.
The Joy Formidable: Whirring
Great single that pushes forward with incessant vocals and crashing drums.
The Welsh three piece do sound a bit like Arcade Fire, which is probably a lazy conclusion to come to, but you are likely to love both or neither.
Bat for Lashes: Daniel
Enya is all I can hear. Natasha Khan‘s usual brand of beautifully crafted mystical pop has sailed too close to the pan pipe wind unfortunately.
Kid Harpoon: Stealing Cars
Unbelievably bad, cheesy jangley guitars and cliched lyrics that try to rhyme but don’t quite make it: ‘hands on the wheel, we have the whole light to kill,’ – in fact, that one is nowhere near. Not what I was expecting at all.
White Lies: Death
Melodrama overload. Fear, death, tales of paranoia – it’s just not believable. But fans will invariably love it.
Regina Spektor: Laughing with God
I have an aversion to songs that talk about God, so this one is already on the back foot.
It just completely baffles me – ‘no one laughs at God when they are in a hospital bed..but God can be funny at a cocktail party‘. What? well, apparently the conclusion is we are laughing WITH God. right.