END OF THE WORLD

Ash

Oh dear, it's all gone a bit wrong for Ash lately. They used to be so full of life and ideas, but nowadays they (or at least their singles) sound utterly bereft of inspiration, celebration or even muppetation. Take this song, for instance. Go on, you might as well, I don't want it. It's a slow song that sounds in places like an almost-finished demo, complete with drum machine where the proper drummer's supposed to appear. Unfortunately, it also sounds as though Tim Wheeler hadn't finished writing the lyrics either – the entire chorus consists of the line "Is this the end of the world" repeated over and over and the second verse descends into a load of "ah ah ah"s, giving the impression that he'll finish this verse when he gets round to it. Mind you, that's the least of the song's worries. There's no life to it at all – it sounds like a song that's been rehearsed and recorded so many times that the band became heartily sick of it by the time they came to put the track together for the album. As a result, what we have here is one of Ash's least interesting singles ever. For a band to go from the heights of Orpheus to this as quickly as they have is a grim sight to behold. I'd like to think that Ash can only get better from here… they just have to.

BETTER

Regina Spektor

Oh look, see, this song's Better for a start.




No, I'm not apologising for that. Don't look at me like that. This is a proper oddity, this one. For one thing, the ending – it doesn't fade out, but it winds down very, very slowly, almost as if Ms Spektor's daring DJs everywhere to find an appropriate place to start jabbering away over the top as they get ready to play I Don't Feel Like Dancin'. It's also mainly piano-led, but it's got a much harder sound to it than you'd expect. It's one of those songs that, if it was a person, would be all sweetness and light unless you spilled its pint, at which point it'd probably kick your head in and then saunter off whistling The Sun Has Got His Hat On. I actually like this one. It's different, it stands out, and chart positions were clearly the furthest thing from La Spektor's mind when she put it together. That's good enough for me.

MY EYES

Travis

My ears. Oh God, my poor ears. This is pleasant, bland, unexciting and sounds eerily similar to the sort of music they were doing way back in the days when it felt like everyone except me was busy buying The Man Who. Like Ash, this is the sound of a band going backwards. It's a proper nothing song that's going to sink without trace and quite frankly, it deserves to. Come on Travis, you can do so much better than this lukewarm retread.

IDEALISTIC

Digitalism

There's all sorts going on here. Basically, if you like your music played by real instruments then Digitalism really aren't going to be your cup of tea. Everything I've heard from them so far embraces computers, almost to the extent that it could almost be feasible that if you put Digitalism in a room with a load of musical instruments, they'd look around and say, "These are nice. What are they?" I suppose a few years ago, this sort of thing would be called electroclash, mind you for all I know it still could be, I've not really been paying that much attention y'see. The difference between this and bands like Fischerspooner though, is that Digitalism aren't trying to make any grand statements that'll last the test of time, they just like making songs. It's probably much kinder to refer to them in the same breath as Vitalic, both acts like creating dance music that's defiantly individual. If you hear a Vitalic song, you know it's them, and if you hear a Digitalism song, you're hardly likely to think you're hearing Ultrabeat. Yep, I like this one and all, and the sly nod to Blue Monday's a nice touch too.