Cuties: What We Aim For
This is a kind of Back Of The Sofa special, I spose. But all of the songs featured here have one thing in common, they're all cute. Not cute like Alvin & the Chipmunks or the Care Bears, that would be terrible. No, this lot are cute because they don't seem to care a right lot that the music they are making possibly won't top the charts. All they're interested in is making songs which are true to their own internal logic. They are the kindly old man who knows how to pull a 10p out of a child's ear, but with music.
And if cute seems to be a condescending or patronising word, that's a shame, cos it's always massively endearing when people act like themselves, right? Well it's the same with songs...
Leona Naess - 'Heavy Like Sunday'
Heavy is almost entirely the wrong word to use in relation to this song. In the same way that you wouldn't call the Sahara 'damp', you can't call Leona Naess heavy. She is cute though.
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Gotye - 'Heart's A Mess'
Dark can also be cute, especially when accompanied by a video like this one.
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Wild Beasts - 'The Devil's Crayon'
Yep, it's THEM again. This band must be the biggest secret crush band in the country. They get very little press, or airplay, but yet people who hear them seem to really love them. I imagine they're the kind of band who will not suit the kind of success that comes with a free pack of paps and a date with Kate Moss, but they do keep making records that are unique and lovely. Can't wait for the album!
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Jamie Lidell - 'Another Day'
This strangely Jamiroquai-ish young man (in sound, if not in hattage) is a signed to Warp records, home of the Aphex Twin (among others) and not traditionally a label who dabble in things which are cute. All changed now, eh?
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Barringtone - 'Snake In The Grass'
Features the chorus "Thunder, thunder. WA-HOO!", and is therefore the best thing I have heard all day. If anyone remembers the amazing(ly strange) band Clor, this is the singer, Barry Dobbin's latest project. This is pop music for people with an astonishingly short attention span. Late Of The Pier, you have a rival!
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Comment number 1.
At 4th Jun 2008, -RachelS- wrote:I was a bit blown away by the Gotye one. The video is beautiful.
But the video for the Jamie Liddell one is seriously weird - makes the Gotye surreal stuff look oddly sensible!
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Comment number 2.
At 7th Mar 2009, winstein wrote:first time ,quite unique.
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