Hitsville U.K.

NEU!
TRACKS - 04.02.09 - Pete Doherty, Ida Maria, U2, Dananananaykroyd

Pete Doherty - Last Of The English Roses
It was a little obvious that old Pete would have something patriotic-sounding, some "dreaming of Albion" schtick somewhere on his solo album. But it ain't what you'd expect from the tabloids second favourite crackhead (the first being Winehouse), which I'm guessing is soft acoustic strums and a couple of lullaby strings. "...English Roses" has quite a dubby feel overall, sounding more like Franz's "Blood" than Doherty's previous efforts, but that's the only point of interest in the whole song. The chorus is nowhere near as catchy or anthemic as Pete would like to think, and the song ends up as a dirge. Stick to the day job mate.
4

Ida Maria - Oh My God
Nope, not a Kaisers cover (like I thought at first) and a world away from the plastic pop-punk of "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked", which is all the better. Ida Maria is yet another Scandanavian popstrel, she's the slightly more dangerous alternative to her contemporaries, such as Annie and Lykke Li. Catchy as a STD covered in glue, this should have you joyously pogoing around wherever you are (although I advise against doing it in school/work). If you don't, you have no soul...either that or have no taste for good old rock 'n' roll fun.
7

U2 - Get On Your Boots
Yep, they're back. Just as the world has gone into recession, Labour stumbles from crisis to crisis once again and many many other things to worry about, U2 return to heap more MOR rock misery on us. Maybe I'm being a little unfair, as they have made some great songs and provided a soundtrack for so many TV adverts with "Vertigo" and "Beautiful Day". I'm guessing they're trying to reinvent themselves as camp glam-rockers this time around, although they're a bit late seeing as the Manics did that two years ago. Musically it's average for a band as talented as them with The Edge chucking out a second-rate Jimmy Page riff, presumably with his eyes closed. There is one sign of hope though, with Sir Lord Saint Bono proclaiming "I don’t want to talk about wars between nations". Thank fuck for that.
5.5

Dananananaykroyd - 1993
Try saying that when you're pissed. Or even sober. I'm just about getting my head around it now. One of the big names being tipped by those on the alternative side of the the music spectrum to make it relatively big this year are a shouty and loud bunch. "1993" seems to be like they've gone through a pick 'n' mix of some of the best music of the last couple of years going from the choppy guitars of Maximo Park to pounding drums The Hold Steady and a hell of a lot of elements of Biffy Clyro's sound. It ends similarly to Grammatics' "The Vauge Archive", slowed down, much calmer and softer before one last crunch of distortion. Promising, if not entirely original to these ears.
7