Under The Influence

Children of the ‘80s that they are, singer Inara George and producer Greg Kurstin have chosen Daryl Hall & John Oates for the first volume of Interpreting the Masters, a sly move that reveals both their age and intended audience -- i.e., ex alt-rockers raised on new wave and now settling into a tasteful, hipster middle age, hauling around kids dressed in Ramones t-shirts -- and a reflection of Hall & Oates’ increasing reputation as soul-pop songwriters and record-makers.

The Bird & the Bee manage to make these very familiar hits sound fresh without radically reinventing them. That in itself is a much trickier move than turning these all into slow acoustic dirges, but it’s better still because these arrangements are true to both Hall & Oates and George & Kurstin.

The heart of the album lies in these covers of ‘80s staples: they shift the spotlight just enough to prove how good both the original song and singles are, and by never drawing attention to their own performance and arrangements, the Bird & the Bee prove just how good they are too.

For their second album, 'Wake Up...It's Tomorrow', Strawberry Alarm Clock built upon the solid writing and musicianship that inevitably carried over from the 'Incense and Peppermints' project.

In retrospect, it is baffling as to why they were relegated to the "one-hit wonders" file, as their most social and musically relevant statements had yet to be made.

The album does fit together in an odd way, and was more of a musicians' record than a producer's record -- and had more people heard it, they might've been remembered in subsequent years as a band and not just as an AM radio phenomenon with a funny name.

Love, love, love, love, love... oh please make it stop. Listening to this with the boat healed over beating through the waves at 10kts and me in the galley trying to bake bread, bad idea.

The whole thing felt a bit amateurish to me. The lyrics were really the killer though - too much ecstasy makes you think you can heal the world tih love. Any lyric that wasn't about love seemed to be thrown in for the sake of creating a rhyme - despite how non-sensical the sentence became.

Obviously Love Generation is going to stand as a classic summer anthem. Just wish I hadn't heard it in the context of the rest of the album. Had it not been for the dough all over my hands I would have torn my headphones off.

For some reason I randomly downloaded three tracks off this album - I have no idea why (maybe I was low in emusic credits at the time). The three I picked all seem to be girl, or at least girl fronted, electro groups. And that's three more super cool sounding electro girl groups to investigate.

Dragonette sound like an electrofied Cardigans vs Waitresses. Robots in Disguise's Turn It Up is an expression of their love for their influences, from Teaches Of Peaches to The Smiths and Ping Pong Bitches' Rock Ya Body sounds like one of the better Britney productions.

After listening again I'm not sure which track I like most. They're all quite different and all very strong. Strong enough that I'm heading back to emusic to buy the rest of the album.

Now, I can't remember if my well electro-educated (glitchy stuff in particular) friends told me if this guy was good or not but if they didn't, well, they were wrong. This stuff straddles the glitch/pop divide nicely.

Before I downloaded this album I actually grabbed a copy of a tune called Dog Days that everyone seems to be banging on about (those in the know cringe at my ignorance right now). It deserves the attention actually. Smart, upbeat, poppy, catchy and interesting. All the classic glitch noises are there but it's music your girlfriend would dance to. The same story goes for Asa Bread too.

At the outset this felt like typical female fronted pop-rock, the more I listened the more I realised that there's actually some really interesting work going on here. Second listen and I'm finding myself rather intrigued.

Kind of punky. It would be easy to drop the PJ Harvey label on this because of the rawness that comes through - it doesn't really sound like PJ Harvey (well, Pause/Off does a bit). Killed By The Telephone has interesting almost found sounding patterns towards the end.

You know what, this is almost prog. They use those classic keyboards and the vocals have an 80s Debbie Harry vibe.

That's it, prog it is.

All of a sudden I've been completely swamped by music that really does it for me. When I last wrote about Spoon I was surprised by them secretly becoming my favourite band. Since then I've completely accepted them as one of the greatest indie bands of all time. Their latest offering is just helping to cement that position.

Don't You Evah is great bit of radio friendly perfection. That the funny thing with these guys - every song is a top indie radio hit, but it's not like everything else. Fundamentally it's quite simple I guess - good pop always gives the appearance of being simple... though I guess if it was actually that simple there would be more good stuff around.

Come on world, pay attention this time, this really is some seriously good stuff that deserves to push everything else off the charts.

What a voice. I can't believe anyone could possibly sound this good in a live performance. Seriously, it's absolutely flawless. I've never listened to her stuff before so I have no idea how it compares to the studio work but it's probably worth a listen.

For the most part the music sits quite happily with it's little safe hat on. It's nice enough but there's nothing original/inspirational happening (aside from the vocals). It's girl music really - the crowd is full of screeching 15 year old girls soaking up their idol.

Stand out track would have to be Fear. It's one of the more downbeat ones but her voice really shines.

If I were a 15 year old girl I'm sure I'd worship this.

Truthfully, I'm not sure what to think of this. Maybe I'm missing something but it just felt a bit safe. Parts of I Will Wait For You sound like a rip of a old White Stripes track (from the Blood Cells days).

Kinda country-pop-rock - generally a bit too happy - though I guess it's fun. Interestingly the song I liked the most, Hemsworth Hallway, was actually the happiest sounding of the bunch. It's got the catchiest hook on the album... "You know, we don't know what goes though your little miiiiiiiiiiiiind"

If nothing else it definitely sounds like it's derived from a different era.

Feel like I've heard Parentheses before - very catchy little melody. Cute lyric too "And when you're holding me, we make a pair of Parentheses". Lots of the rhythms are really broken - almost dub step in places. Kicks are supplemented with lots of finger clicks and hand claps. The synth sound is almost New (Old) Wave.

Last track on the album, True Affection, really caught my attention on the first listen, though it's not necessarily typical of the sound. Actually, nothing on here seems to be typical of the sound. Oow, I like Fists Up now.

In some ways it feels really immature - but it's just so darn cute that you can't help but like it.