Singles Round-up (30/06/08)

Micah P Hinson – ‘When We Embraced’ (Full Time Hobby)

If recent offerings from Bill Callahan have lacked the melancholy underpangs of earlier, more affecting material given his loved-up state of mind lately, Micah P Hinson is here to deliver in his absence. ‘When We Embraced’ is over in a heartbeat, just fingers on strings and a voice so very seeped in a history of downs. It’s, vocally, the sound of Kurt Wagner once told his Lambchop extended family’s been eradicated in a plane crash, albeit dressed as a song about a him and a her – simple of surface but undoubtedly with a backstory to shed a tear to.

Ladyhawke – ‘Paris Is Burning’ (Modular)

If Mystery Jets’ ‘Two Doors Down’ wasn’t a loud enough echo of the ‘80s for you, pick up this neon-dizzy slice of silky nostalgia, a song that’d sound equally as brilliant voiced by Kim Wilde 20 years ago as it does leant the talents of New Zealander Ladyhawke, aka Pip Brown. If you did set fire to ‘Paris’ – not the city, but the former Single of the Week from Friendly Fires – and built a track from scratch from its ashes, you could well end up with something like this: it shares the same liberal glossiness, and is just as able to fill a floor of revelry of an eve. _Or_: like CSS without the unnecessary glitter.

The Dodos – ‘Red And Purple’ (Wichita)

A clattering, clanging delight of a thwack-a-thon, percussion as the conductor, and a soothing vocal line drifting elegantly above a maelstrom of toe-wriggling bombast. It’s a love song, really, dressed up as a military tattoo, the desire for companionship placating the fear of what comes next: fight or flee, either way it’s fine so long as “you never leave us”. A great standalone from The Dodos’ recommended album, Visiter (review), and an excellent introduction if you’re yet to be wooed.

Wild Beasts – ‘The Devil’s Crayon’ (Domino)

The one not led vocally by falsetto-crooner Hayden Thorpe, ‘The Devil’s Crayon’ is the most obvious single from Wild Beasts’ superlative Limbo, Panto debut (one of our essential albums of 2008 so far, further reading), given its immediacy and outlining of the band’s key characteristics – they’re northern, they write wildly creative pop songs in a wholly unique and unconventional manner, and they’re bloomin’ marvellous. Somewhere, in a parallel world not even a decently dressed Billie Piper can penetrate, music like this is all over the airwaves, infecting an audience with the most delightful ridiculousness. Oh, to be an inter-dimensional backpacker possessing the passport to end all passports.

Tricky – ‘Council Estate’ (Domino)

The return of Tricky as a creative force to be reckoned with is welcomed – his forthcoming Knowle West Boy LP is impressing many in the DiSopolis – but this curtain-up single seems a little too throwaway to do its parent album justice proper. Slice down and it will bleed the same deep menace that flowed through the veins of Maxinquaye back in ’95, but a buoyant bassline gives ‘Council Estate’ a breezy atmosphere that doesn’t entirely suit its maker’s reputation for brooding slow-burners. Whisper it – this is almost his take on Just Jack’s ‘Starz In Their Eyes’.

Also out today: plenty of other singles that we’ve not space to comment on here. Got something to say on them? Post below…