Single of the week
The Goon Sax : Make Time 4 Love
The Goon Sax are related to the Go-Betweens. By blood, yes, but in spirit and aesthetic also. It’s almost scary how well the trio’s romantic realism corresponds to that of their Brisbane antecedents. The band’s comparative songwriting panache is on full display here as thrumming acoustic guitars support a plain-spoken account of adolescent growing pains. It gains a touch of grandeur from a swelling string section – straight out of the Go-Betweens playbook, but still capable of disrobing your prevailing naiveties.
Loose Tooth : You Say
Busy bass playing tends to work better inside an otherwise lean arrangement. That’s the case on ‘You Say’, an upbeat garage rocker where melodic bass lines take the lead, ahead of scratchy guitar chords. The purposeful fiddling matches the accusatory tone of the verse lyrics, but the bass later calms down in order to spotlight the repeated vocal declaration, “I keep losing each time that I am choosing you.”
The Internet : La Di Da
In the three years since their last full length, the individual members of The Internet have all made a splash with a mixture of solo records, production work and featured guest spots. This could’ve created a too-many-cooks tension on their new collaborative work, but ‘La Di Da’ instantly erases that notion. It’s an expertly balanced work of sleek funk-R&B. Vocals alternate and rhythmic elements continuously unfurl, but it remains rich with intrigue and never becomes crowded. Bruno Mars could learn a thing or two about subtlety and pacing.
Rainbow Chan : Promises
People travel more than ever before and thanks to the internet we can talk to anyone, anywhere at any time. But this doesn’t make long distance relationships any more manageable. There are also more options at our fingertips and we’re collectively less patient. Rainbow Chan works through these sorts of concerns on ‘Promises’. And like the infatuation she describes, the electro-R&B number is immediately infectious; casually moving on just isn’t an option.
