New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too

YOURZ

Talk about being late to the party.  This American band (well, one main guy and a swag of studio musicians) come across like a British soul act from ten years earlier.  The only reason I know the single, You Get What You Give, is because is was used in a Mitsubishi car ad run here in Australia.  But even then, this song doesn't save the album from being a bit too bleached for my liking.

Apparently this same song was everywhere at one point in the late 90s but I don't remember hearing it back then.  Truth be known, I probably heard it and ignored it.  Like I'm pretty much doing now.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

MINE

OK, I have to admit to buying this album, simply because I liked You Get What You Give which was huge all over the place.  And I absolutely adored the not-so-well-known second single, Someday We'll Know.  Best. Break-up Song. Ever. "I'm speeding by the place that I met you/ For the 97th time ... tonight"

In fact I have to apologise to my neighbours in - 2000 was it?  When this song was on repeat, on my stereo, for hours on end.  Sorry about that.  Despite the fact the guy behind the band, Gregg Alexander, went on to write hit after hit for various other artists, this album has a very definite use-by date.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information: http://www.last.fm/music/New+Radicals

Florence & The Machine - Lungs

YOURZ

As music fans, Mine and YourZ (truly) read a lot of music magazines.  Our favourite is Q Magazine, although it does have a habit of putting the bloody Gallaghers on the front cover.  Still, it's the content we love, not the covers.  And it has quite probably the largest review section of any music magazine out there.

Like a lot of British press, it spends a lot of time hyping up local acts, often to the extreme and often undeservedly.  In Florence & The Machine's case, though, they actually got it right.  This is a stunning debut of a real, honest to goodness talent and one that's likely to be around for a long time (fuck, I hope I haven't cursed her in saying this).

Oh, sure, there are endless comparisons you could adopt if you wanted to be a wanker about it.  It would actually be a task because this young lady is a bit of a musical chameleon, switching and adapting her sound to suit her moods and songs.  So to start drawing the comparisons is a bit of a pointless exercise.  Don't look for them, just sit back and enjoy it.  Just take our word for it; this is every bit as good as the hype will have you believe. 

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

MINE

Why did it take me so long to buy this album?  I think I'm losing my music magazine mojo (MMM) - the ability to read a review and instantly know when an artist will appeal to me.  I think I've read about five reviews for Lungs and all of them made me want to buy it.  But I resisted the temptation because I hadn't actually heard any songs.  That's not surprising this year, because it actually takes quite some time to listen to all the CDs we're reviewing.  Plus I have a life, you know.  Work.  Housework.  Couches to potato on.  Cats to play with.  A husband to annoy. Stuff.

In fact, my time in the car, where I used occasionally to get exposed to new music, is now spent actively listening to old music.  But the other day, when we were wandering through a record shop, I bravely stretched my hand out and purchased this CD, gaining some of my MMM back and an appreciative remark from the pierced and tattooed goth girl behind the counter.

It's good.  Very good.  But it's taken me until today to realise whose voice it is Florence reminds me of.  It's Michelle Shocked.  Obviously that's where the comparison stops, because the wall-of-sound orchestration that F & the M use is nothing like the chirpy guitar-based folky stuff Ms Shocked was wont to push out.  It's an album I'm sorry I resisted buying for so long, and one I know I'll be playing for many years to come.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

For more information: http://florenceandthemachine.net/

Aztec Camera - Love

MINE

It's completely impossible for me to be objective about this album, as it's been a mainstay of my life since I first heard it in 1988.  As I've mentioned before, this period was when I took a deep breath, left my first husband (YourZ sez: I'm glad of this, as bigamy is not a game I wanna play), and moved hundreds of kilometres to start a new life. 

1988 saw me introduced to a whole bunch of new things - like the concept there were people in Australia who weren't particularly excited by the Bicentennial celebrations and were instead protesting Invasion Day.  Like ecstasy - and dance parties - and the realisation I fitted into that world like nothing I'd experienced ever before.

But it also introduced me to Roddy Frame and his album Love - that now strikes me as being almost easy-listening.  I'm sure it's one of those acquired-taste things that "you had to be there" for, but I still love the lyrics from Somewhere In My Heart - "From Westwood to Hollywood/ There's one thing that's understood/ Is that you can't buy time/ But you can sell your soul/ And the closest thing to heaven is to rock and roll."

It's a vignette of a time long past and it may have a certain "Eau de Fromage" after all these years.  But I vacillate between wondering if I was ever really that young, and wondering how 20 years can have passed from a moment I recall as clearly as if it were yesterday.

VERDICT: TURN IT UP

  

YOURZ

As Mine says, this disc has a high cheese quotient.  To me, this kind of British soul (in this case coming from Scotland) has never been appealing.  Okay, the one possible exception is Paul Weller, but even then, I wasn't a fan of his soul music either.  Besides, Paul is in a completely different league, as far as I'm concerned.

The only song on this disc that sparked any recognition in me is Somewhere In My Heart.  I kind of remember it being on various music shows and the radio when it was released.  But it left absolutely no impression on me whatsoever.  To be honest, the whole sound of this record reminds me of a lot of what was bad about 80s pop music.

VERDICT: THROW IT OUT

For more information: http://www.myspace.com/azteccamera