Under The Influence

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.

Umm... drop everything right now. Nothing else matters... get down on your knees and worship Fog.

Got hold of a copy of this (even though it's not out until August) just before going away on my trip last week - stayed up listening to it even when i needed to sleep because I was so enraptured. Several times during my trip I stopped to think about how much I was looking forward to getting back home to give it another listen.

These are pop masterpieces... they must be, I'm on the second listen (the first being over a week ago) and I already know lots of the hooks. Here's the thing though - it twists and turns so much that everything takes me by surprise.

Is the old Fog work as good as this? Should be able to tell you soon - just purchased the entire back catalogue. Man, I can't wait to catch these guys at the Goldmund Festival.

As Fog themselves put it -

"There are people in the world that like weird noises and there are people in the world that like pop songs and then there are some people that like both... and we're those people."

See, I'm those people too. Now it all makes sense.

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.

I know, I know, this is old news. I've listened to the album through before - it's just that this is the first time I've had my very own copy to enjoy.

This stuff is good. I've listened to too much Brit rock that really hasn't done much for me of late (I'm looking at you Arctic Monkeys) - listening to this again restores my faith in the genre. I think half the tracks on here were hits last summer, rightfully so too. It's fun. Silly fun with great pop hooks.

Chelsea Dagger is a top lads-down-at-the-pub-sing-a-long track. Overall it got a bit boring towards the end - but mostly because I've bombarded with this stuff so many times before that I already know the whole thing off by heart.

This album is far too short.

It kicks off with a great Rockabilly cover of the classic Strange Fruit. Actually, I believe the whole thing is a covers album, though I certainly don't know them all.

The song selection is varied and everything is given a top reworking to sound uniquely theirs. You can hear all sorts of different musical styles buried beneath the rock exterior.

Tears Of Rage is a great bit of americana, Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs is completely amping and Need A Job hits like a kick in the teeth - sounds a lot like Ivory Springer in some respects.

I really like this.

Stomping electro beats, filthy beats, distorted, twisted beats. They've definitely gone for the big noise approach, and it really works. It's German I believe. The vocals are definitely German - though the overall sound is a strange hard European/ Brit-rock hybrid.

We get a deconstruction of The Cure's Fire In Cairo (hence the covers classification... though it's a bit iffy) - stuttering so brutally that it's almost hard to take (the following Departure From Cairo mellows us out again).

Very infectious sounds.

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.

Quite a Depeche Mode sound going on here. Rocky guitar riff, somewhat reminiscent of On The Road Again. Their own remix of the track is blessed with the kind of filthy electro bassline I really can't get enough of.

The Audion’s Donation remix is long (11 minutes) but good.

Not such a big fan of the remix of Shining Bright Star (sAd VErsiOn By [k37!]) on here. Downloaded another version (Phones Industrial) which is really cool though.

I really like this stuff - why isn't the album on EM yet? Damn nation.

Another one of those bands that I could see coming when !!! dropped back in the day. I've always thought of the sound as being a push towards an updated version of The Clash. These guys do a pretty good job of it. Cool danceable grooves. The Van She Tech remix of Ice Cream is probably my favourite in terms of DJ material.