AUTOMATIC EYES

Echoboy

Usually, Mute Records put out some pretty good stuff, so I thought I’d give this a listen. It starts off like a very early New Order (yeah, I know, they were on Factory Records) song – you know, all guitars and drum machines – but it soon develops a sound of its own, possibly when the singing starts. Somebody’s played with the vocal track so he sounds like he’s singing normally and yet at the same time he’s been slowed down. Brrr, it’s a bit spooky. Sounds quite good ,though. While he’s singing, the song’s gradually building itself up (you almost don’t notice it happening) ready for the big finish and then... it just fades out. What a let down. Still, it’s good stuff and there are far worse ways to pass the time.

THUGZ MANSION

2Pac

Usually, when somebody famous dies there are only one or two things left to release to the public as all the important stuff was put out during the artist’s lifetime. God knows how (because he just does), but 2Pac seems to gone about this the other way round. Now, either he or his record company must have done something right as his singles and albums (Albums! He must have left behind one hell of a back catalogue!) still do well in the charts and this single probably isn’t going to break that trend. It’s a straightforward hip-hop song with 2Pac saying how he’s misunderstood and when he dies he won’t go to Heaven but will probably end up at Thug Mansion, which’ll probably be more fun than that other place anyway. I can’t really identify with this sort of thing myself, but what the hell, it makes a nice change from the likes of Justin Timberlake so I’m not going to slate it.