PICK OF THE WEEK
Hozier
Jackie & Wilson (Rubyworks)
I’ll admit to not knowing anything about Hozier before today, other than seeing his name on billboards and thinking “heh, sounds like the Hoosiers, wonder what those guys are doing now”. He occupies the same space in my head as Father John Misty, a hairy guy singing, probably with a guitar. Surprisingly, Jackie & Wilson doesn’t offend me with blandness like I imagined, and makes for some fairly solid hairy-white-guy-blues. His voice is sweet, the lyrics are good, the instrumentation is aptly mellow; it feels like he’s breaking up with me but we’re both all right with it. Only joking, I’m not all right with it, I’m going to send his mum his nudes.
Adam Lambert
Another Lonely Night (Warners)
I always thought Adam Lambert was a kind of “Rylan” character in the gameshow fame stakes. Someone flamboyant and camera-ready but without a lot else going on. It turns out that Lambert is actually a legit respectable pop artist across the pond. His song Another Lonely Night is reminiscent of early-career Sam Smith, with house piano and fuzzy club-drops under his affected vocals. It’s OK, if you like music that sounds like it was made by someone who has fallen off the radar.
Format:B
Chunky (Ministry of Sound)
What would a singles round-up in 2015 be without a totally forgettable commercial house tune? I think every time I’ve reviewed them one has cropped up, like a bland, grey whack-a-mole. Format:B have been doing the rounds for years with middling success, and in Chunky they’ve created a song dull enough to be featured in a snowboarding video game. An almost ironically bland 4x4 beat thuds along, backed by synth squelches and scoffing cowbell. This is your mate’s shit mate who you’re left with when said mate goes to the toilet, in song form.
A Will Away
My Sitter (Triple Crown Records)
If there was ever evidence that the United States is a time-warp, this band is it. Long hair, glasses, a slice-of-Americana-music-video, husky vocalist, guys swinging guitars around in a shed: we’ve been here before a thousand times. Even so, against my better judgment, I like it. It reminds me of straightening my hair, wearing fingerless gloves and trying to get girls to meet me in Kingston graveyard over MSN.
Haiku Salut
Things Were Happening And They Were Strange (Self released)
This song stinks of patchouli oil. It’s exactly what plays in a house with beads on strings instead of doors, with dog hair on every surface. There are about 20 instruments in this all vying for attention, none of them working in conjuction with each other, while a woman (who I assume has dreads) sings weakly over the mess of jangly bong hits. It’s the song a sitcom hippy would make before resting a joint into their Bob Marley ashtray.
