SLEIGH BELLS – It’s Just Us Now
It’s rather admirable that the dude from Sleigh Bells is trying to sustain a career in playing guitar when he’s spent the past five years proving he has no fucking idea how to play a guitar. You could let a small number of moray eels loose into an Allans Billy Hyde showroom and you’d achieve a more distinguishable strain of talent than what’s shown on It’s Just Us Now. Time and time again, Sleigh Bells play to their weaknesses. Here, their weaknesses are eclipsed by a woeful misunderstanding of how songs work. This is not how songs work, Sleigh Bells. Please stop doing music.
TINASHE – Company
This is good fun. It’s a sexy song, with some ridiculously unsexy chiptune production, which somehow only makes it sexier. Tinashe sounds immediate and organic, the bursts of NES tones concocting a dizzying dissonance, beefed up by pounding sub-bass. Unique and daring, and above all, just plain good.
JUSTICE – Randy
Justice’s reign was very much of its time, and their DJ sets in the years following made it clear that they’d struggle to adapt and evolve. They shat the bed when it came to capitalising on the festival market’s most lucrative years, especially with the door left wide open by Daft Punk’s absence. Randy isn’t terrible, a bit of falsetto that may or may not be an attempt at a Kevin Parker impersonation. Mostly forgettable, but the instrumental breakdown is where it’s most potent – everything after feels overlong.
CALVIN HARRIS – My Way
What’s with EDM producer bros feeling like they should lay down their own vocals for a song? It worked with Flumey on his latest LP because it was never really a feature vocal. On My Way, Calvin Harris just performs a self-indulgent cry-wank over some cookie cutter shit-grade melodies. This is absolute unlistenable trash. And you know what, I actually dig This Is What You Came For. Huge tune. Calvin should be banned from making any music that doesn’t feature Rihanna, forever. And should definitely be banned from laying his piss-weak voice down on a track, forever.
SINGLE OF THE WEEK
SEEKAE – Turbine Blue
For their first new track since 2014’s The Worry, Seekae place a certain confine on themselves with a tonal palette of vintage synthesiser, opening up paddocks of breathing space in the process. Their songcraft shines, not shying away from basic pop sensibility. There’s an air of Australian Crawl’s Reckless, an invigorating cool emboldened by Alex Cameron’s mellow vocal. It’s simple and I love it.
