Track Review: The Courteeners - The 17th

So Liam Fray and co are back. Their 5th album 'Mapping the Rendezvous' is out on October 21st which will no doubt prompt those who love a good ellesse polo and the odd smoke bomb to wet themselves with excitement. But in my opinion, it's a shame that album release date isn't 50 years in the future if The 17th is anything to go by. 

This first glimpse of new material is the perfect example of The Courteeners at their most complacent. The track never really gets going as it lumbers along at a mind numbing pace with a 'Don't You Want Me' drum beat and tip toe pianos. Liam Fray does his best Matt Berninger impression throughout with both his vocals and his lyrics but falls massively short of The National frontman. When Fray tries to wistfully paint a romantic picture with lyrics such as "So let's find that place with the pink neon sign / the one that points to you and says do you wanna be mine" and "everyone can hear you but nobody's listening / we've got another wedding and another christening"  he sounds woefully like a love struck 14 year old who's just discovered a thesaurus. 

What's worst about The 17th however, is the sheer lack of ambition it shows. With making this the lead single The Courteeners have simply shown that this album isn't going to progress their sound or even them as a band at all. All it does is tell everyone that Mapping the Rendezvous is going to be the same drivel as their last album, and the one before that and so on. 

Because The Courteeners have never changed since their second album; their happy to push the same old shit knowing they've got the fan base that'll lap it up regardless of what it sounds like. The band are happy enough to coast along with tours in venues that aren't your best mates front room but still aren't arenas without pushing the envelope and having the bollocks to actually take a risk on something a little different now they have an established fan base. But then again, while ever The Courteeners continue to sell out tours we'll never seen any real musical progress from them.

Track Review: Bloody Knees - I Want It All

After a year and eight months without releasing a scrap of new material, Bloody Knees finally strapped on some plasters and shared 'I Want It All' with the world.

Although it is a bit different to their carnivorous 'Stiches' EP, it still firmly retains their identity as this is undeniably a Bloody Knees track. In a similar fashion to Nai Harvest's refinement for their album 'Hairball', compared to their rough around the edges early material, the Cambridge four piece have trimmed the fat and polished their sound. The guitars are crunchy whilst frontman Brad Griffiths' voice is less hoarse and he actually sounds like the frontman of a fully fledged rock band (not the type that'll get 50 year old bald men with massive beards and biker jackets turning up to their shows though, don't worry).

The track itself is sludgy, heavy and menacing to the point where it feels like it stalks the streets late at night kicking the shit out of anything it comes across. It's slower and more grungy than their previous material when they've take their foot off the gas, like on Garbage Brain, and to put it simply, it's a bloody brilliant return.

Hopefully it won't be too long before Bloody Knees are back out on their own headline tour and if 'I Want It All' is a sign of intent, they'll be laying waste to venues across the country yet again.
  

D.I.D – Fast Food

New name. Same hooks. The second taster of the new and improved Dog is Dead proves that they’ve not strayed too far from the familiar sounds of their debut album ‘All Our Favourite Stories’ as first new single ‘Hotel’ would’ve had you believe. 

Frontman Rob Milton’s voice is still as soft as velvet during this verses as it cascades over a springy, sunken bassline and a plucky guitar line that’s as radio friendly as Nick Grimshaw. But the hook and chorus are the real standout features of this track. Milton’s delivery quickens to spit out ‘Now all we do is eat fast food / All we do is fool around / What we do means nothing, nothing, nothing’ as if he’s dismissing a lover as cannon fodder. After this the whole thing continues to build to the climax of 'I can keep my head up / And if I let you down, I can keep my head up', which you can already tell is aiming for max crowd participation on their upcoming UK tour. 

The main thing that Fast Food accomplishes however, is that it keep us guessing as to what D.I.D. will do next. But one things for sure, it presumably won't be a venture into the takeaway industry. 

Fast Food is available to download now from iTunes and is also part of the Fast Food EP alongside fellow tracks Gameplan, Hotel and Big Lie which is released on the 18th of September.

Circa Waves - Fossils

Circa Waves simply can't put a foot wrong at the minute. Off the back of a triumphant UK tour, they premiered new single Fossils and at just shy of 3 minutes, it's an absolute firecracker of indie brilliance.

The track follows a similar formula to their previous work yet it still manages to sound refreshing. It boasts prominent, bouncy guitars and a chorus that's so catchy you'll find yourself singing along to it before the track has even finished, which is a testament to their song writing abilities. With their hotly anticipated debut album on the horizon, it seems almost cliched to compare Circa Waves to The Strokes yet the similarities are there for anybody to see. Besides, it can't exactly be a bad thing to be compared to the band that practically saved guitar music, can it?