Singles of the Week: mostly on Panda Bear’s greatness…

Panda Bear

As you read this, Spain will still be celebrating their World Cup victory; Paul Gasgoine will be solemnly dismantiling his fishing rod; Paul the Octopus will be eating from a solitaty feeding bowl and you will be wondering why this sentence insists on being so fucking long when I could be spending words discussing one of the most hotly anticipated releases of the year…

PANDA BEAR – Tomboy

As Animal Collective moves further and further into the realm of purely electronic music, ‘Tomboy’ indicates that Panda Bear might be using his upcoming solo album to experiment with live instrumentation again. That’s not to say that ‘Tomboy’ could ever be mistaken for a live performance: there are still plenty of samples and the song is anchored by a reverb-soaked programmed beat but – being firmly led by guitar – this feels more organic than anything on Person Pitch.

In terms of similarities to his previous solo work, Noah still piles layers and layers of identical vocal takes upon one another to provide his voice with the distinctive hazy glow that enriches his music so much. Also, as with Person Pitch, ‘Tomboy’ is more an atmospheric mood piece than it is an example of Panda Bear’s song writing prowess: the vocal line hugs tightly to the erratic chord progression in a drone that recalls the sound collages of Animal Collective’s earlier material rather than the structured focus of their newer albums.

All in all, this is intriguing and promising stuff. As with anything Panda Bear touches, ‘Tomboy’ manages to sound completely fresh whilst being unmistakably him. And do you want to know the best news of all? The B-side is even more tantalising.

KATE NASH – Kiss That Grrrl

If you felt an urge for sixties girl group music, you probably wouldn’t naturally gravitate towards a new Kate Nash single to scratch that itch. Unexpectedly, however, ‘Kiss That Grrrl’ saunters along on a cleanly toned guitar lick vividly recalling the sound of that era. Leaving her trademark piano entirely abandoned, Nash creates a relatively authentic sounding throwback whilst her chatty, faux-Cockney vocal delivery ensures that this is still unmistakably A Kate Nash Song.

Sixties echoes also reverberate through the lyrics with lines like “baby, please don’t break my heart because you’re the only one I love” being exactly the sort of thing you might hear in an old Lesley Gore number. By and large, however, Nash’s lyrics are far more fiercely jealous than anything you would have heard in ‘It’s My Party’. Lesley Gore rather innocently wondered where her Johnny had gone, and why Judy left the same time. Kate Nash, infinitely more bitterly, tries to think of a thousand ways to hurt Johnny and speculates that Judy might be anorexic. She must eat so many lemons.

KATIE PRICE – Free To Love Again

Erase from your memory (if you haven’t already) the Katie Price who embarrassingly warbled her way through a strained version of ‘A Whole New World’ with then-husband Peter Andre. Nobody saw this coming. This – her debut single proper – is as life affirming as dance music comes and it’s a downright tragedy that it will be dismissed by so many people before it’s even heard. For Price to release an opus of this magnitude so early in her career is nothing short of staggering. ‘Free to Love Again’ is a powerful assertion of independence and empowerment set to this year’s most vibrant and intelligent dance beat – music for the brain, the soul and the feet. Expect this – if there is any justice in the world – to dominate the second half of 2010.

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FIRST AID KIT – Sailor Song

First Aid Kit simultaneously invited and nullified comparisons to the Fleet Foxes when they rose to prominence by posting a video on YouTube of themselves covering a song from that band’s debut album – a performance which arguably surpassed the original’s rich and towering harmonies despite the band being only two in number.

New single ‘Sailor Song’ keeps the skeletal basics of acoustic guitars and warm harmonies but moves into a jauntier, more up-tempo mode than the Fleet Foxes are known for. The sisters are Swedish, and this song is very much out-on-the-porch-with-a-banjo Americana folk. As the drums kick in following a sparsely strummed opening, the music begins to swing with toe tapping pace but grates slightly by being a little too kitsch. As a showcase of the girls’ ability to endear us to their gorgeous, harmonising voices it works well enough, but it’s one of the least affecting cuts from the recent album.

PARAMORE – Careful

After confusing “My Twitter account was hacked” with “I took a topless photo of myself and accidentally posted it on the internet”, Hayley Williams and her band now seem to have confused “releasing a new single” with “re-releasing ‘Ignorance’ sans chorus”. Its harmonic riffs, crunchy palm muting and over-earnest vocal delivery leave it entirely indistinguishable from everything else you have ever heard from this sort of band – a song destined to be enthusiastically endorsed by Fearne Cotton as exciting new music in five weeks time.

To be fair to the band, ‘Careful’ manages to steer clear of any refrain as annoying as “ig-nur-ence is yah new best friend” (doesn’t it feel like that song has been around forever, by the way?); it instead features a subtler (read: more bearable) yet characteristically anthemic chorus. Ultimately, however, this is Paramore exactly as we know them and ‘Careful’ isn’t going to change anybody’s mind about the band one way or the other. If you can look at a present-day photo of Billie Joe Armstrong without slamming your face onto the desk, this might be for you.

THE PIPETTES – Call Me

Forgive me, but I must admit that I’ve pretty much lost track of the Pipettes. Back in the day, there were three of them, wearing matching polka dot dresses and singing doo wop girl group music. Between then and now, we’ve apparently lost all of the original members (there’s just two of them now by the looks of things); they’ve relinquished the right to describe themselves as the prettiest girls we’ve ever met (if, indeed, they ever had it) and, with songs like ‘Call Me’, they’re peddling a sound more accurately described as a blend of seventies disco and eighties electro.

Critics seem eager to abuse the band for the change in sound but surely the Pipettes deserve credit for not rocking up five years after their slew of brilliant sixties throwbacks and trying to make the soufflé rise twice. There is a problem, however, and it is that this simply is not as catchy as any of their old stuff let alone their pinnacle ‘Pull Shapes’. ‘Call Me’ is an upbeat, sugary, loved-up delight, to be sure – but essentially lacks the sparkle of the band’s first run.

PROFESSOR GREEN ft. LILY ALLEN – Just Be Good To Green

Whilst ‘Just Be Good to Green’ is nowhere near as poisonous as the misogynistic garbage festering within quotes from interviews with Prof. Green, one still wonders why female collaborators continue to affiliate themselves with lyrical rackets like this. If I were a woman, I would be reluctant (at best) to provide a chorus to a song by a guy who self-admittedly “ain’t good to girls” (Eazy-E will be rolling in his grave at the pussy-ass faggot’s lack of conviction: just admit that you nut in bitches’ eyes, motherfucker).

Putting all this to one side, the thing thumps and grinds between its two chords effectively enough to achieve what it presumably sets out to do: make drunken people dance in clubs. Add to this a coolly aloof and hooky chorus from Lily (who brings to the mix her trademark backbeat guitar stokes) and you have – presuming that you’ve consumed enough alcohol – a tolerable enough dance record, in spite of a terrible vocal from Professor Green himself.

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