Entertainment For Lively Minds
Do Some New! : Spectrals
This is atop Mondays' (semi-virtual) pile of new releases to get through and blimey it's splendid. Spectrals, like a lot of 'bands' in these austere times is actually one bloke, a 21 year old called Louis Jones from Leeds, and his guitar playing is most splendid in the Johnny Marr/Roddy Frame mode, and the lad is a fine tunesmith.
It's lovely, breezy guitar pop but what really adds the magic for me is it has a dash of early Prefab Sprout where you never really know what chord is coming up next. He's not an E-B-C#m-A merchant that's for sure. It's 'Indie' like it was before this month's cover star came staggering in with his crashing power chords and oversized anorak and ruined it.
The album is called Bad Penny, it's less than 30 minutes long it's got a (presumably deliberately) crap sleeve that David Hepworth would probably immediately toss in the bin, and opens with this (note splendid middle8 at 1:50)
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Less than 30 minutes long...
...that is about the correct running time for an LP, isn't it?
yeah
between 30-40 mins I'd say. One plus side of the move toward digital is it takes away the compulsion for bands to fill 74 mins of CD.
Almost up my street
I'm not too keen on the vocals, the vocals show a more recent influence, somebody like Arctic Monkeys - who in their earlier days had several pretty good 'jangle-pop' tunes - Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts being a prime example.
With Roddy touring currently I'm feeling very nostalgic for the whole Prefabs/Aztec Camera/Lloyd Cole/Johnny Marr thing.
Actually up my street
Just to say that Louis actually lives up my street. ( Not in Leeds but Heckmondwike)
Love it,
really love it.
Very much The Sound of Young Scotland going on there.
He's also continuing the long tradition of crooners in pop, particularly on jangle pop like this.
I love a good croon on a choon.