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The Wildhearts - Stop Us If You Think You've Heard This One Before, Vol.1
Mark Ronson has made covers very big in the last couple of years, you only need to turn on some kind of lazy TV show to hear at least one track from his Version album, which has taken him from renowned producer to bona fide superstar. A few years ago, The Wildhearts made their only mainstream splash in the last decade with their jokey cover of the Cheers theme, even getting played regularly on Radio 1, so is this album their attempt to make a cheap buck off the back of other people's hits? Frankly, no. It may be titled Stop Us If You Think You've Heard This One Before (presumably inspired by The Smiths song that Ronson had such a big hit with), but the chances are pretty slim that there will many people out there who have heard more than a handful of these songs before. The closest they come to covering a 'hit' song is their version of Ice Hockey Hair by Super Furry Animals, and even that has pretty no chance of appearing in the background of Gok's Fashion Fix or How To Look Ten Years Younger. The Wildhearts have never been ones for taking the cheap or lazy option, and their liner notes with this album reveal their intentions for recording it, with frontman Ginger saying: "Thanks for buying this and I hope you get a little insight into some great music you might never have heard before. The laws that govern success in the music industry would lead you to believe that the best music is the most popular music, and this is patently untrue." So, this is collection of songs that members of The Wildhearts love, by bands who mostly aren't that well-known, intended to inspire fans to go and delve further into their back catalogues. Which is about as noble as you'll get with a covers band. The original artists are an eclectic bunch, with punk bands like The Distillers and Descendents, hardcore rock bands like Helmet and Fugazi, little-known British 90s bands like Foil and Baby Chaos (both of whom were awesome, by the way) and acts like Soul Asylum (a pre-Runaway Train song, of course) and the late, great Warren Zevon. Most of them just end up sounding like Wildhearts songs here, but all of them work well, even Ice Hockey Hair, which is sung by drummer Ritch. That's another thing about this album, it's unusually democratic, with each band member getting to pick songs and sing them, without adversely affecting the flow of it. Stop Me... won't make The Wildhearts a big mainstream band, but it's an essential addition to any fan's collection and will hopefully inspire them to go check out some of these great bands. And it kicks Mark Ronson's Version in the balls...
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Micah P. Hinson - And The Red Empire Orchestra
They say that the best music is born out of pain, and Micah P. Hinson has certainly had plenty of that in his life, having once been addicted to painkillers before embarking upon a music career, then suffering a slipped disc when a friend playfully tapped him on the back to celebrate his debut album. This back problem has plagued him over the last few years, leading to him having to take time out after touring his second album And The Opera Circuit. He even admits now that he was unsure if he was ever going to make a comeback, until producer John Congleton contacted him about making a third album, which woke Hinson up from his rut and lead to And The Red Empire Orchestra. He's been a darling of the indie alt.country scene for a while now, but Hinson's albums have never quite delivered on the promise that he has shown when performing live, so it's good to report that And The Red Empire Orchestra does deliver a set of songs that prove that Hinson is a real talent. They're very understated, and certainly don't have the kind of rejuvenated energy that you might expect from the circumstances of their recording, but that's never been his style, and tracks like Tell Me It Ain't So and Sunrise Over The Olympus Mons blow you away with their subtle charms. The orchestral backing he gets from Congleton is immense at times, particularly on the intro to When We Embraced, and while that has always been a key part of Hinson's music, it's never worked quite so well as it does on this album. In fact, that phrase sums up And The Red Empire Orchestra perfectly. It takes everything he has done on his previous two records and just does them that much better. It's great to have him back, even if he never sounds particularly thrilled to be here...
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The Blakes - The Blakes
Rock 'n Roll tends to ooze sex from every grimy pore, and The Blakes certainly think that is the way it should be. Most of songs on this debut album are in some way about sex, not least Don't Bother Me, which has the subtle chorus: "Don't bother me, I'm caught up in your legs and I don't wanna get out." Mind you, that's nothing compared to a line from the next song, Magoo: "Did I hear you say there ain't nothing for free, lama gama gama lama magoo." Pardon? Ok, so we've worked out that the lyrics don't bear too much scrutiny, but what about the music? You can often tell what a band are going to be like from the acts they've supported recently, but with The Wombats and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, that doesn't really make it any much clearer, as they could either make rubbish indie music or dreamy shoegazing music. As it turns out, they do neither, with the opening chugs of Two Times placing them squarely in the Jet camp of bands who want to sound like The White Stripes but aren't quite good enough, so just churn out generic blues rock. At least they do mix it up a little bit when they can, with jangly guitars poppifying a couple of tracks, but it's mostly fairly lumpen and uninspiring stuff. If your idea of experimenting means listening to one of the Oasis albums made after 1996, then this might be for you..
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Jupiter One - Jupiter One
With a name like Jupiter One and an album opener called Intro For Ani Enorda, you might be forgiven for thinking that this lot are a bit esoteric, particularly as that intro track is floaty ambient noise, but as soon as Countdown bursts into life with a squeal of 80s new wave synth and guitars, you realise that Jupiter One are much more down to earth than you might have first thought. Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, they wear their influences on their sleeves, and it's basically any band who got played in Donnie Darko, plus the likes of The Cars, Talking Heads, Gang Of Four, etc. It's all very 80s and proud, mixing modern day American indie rock with new wave in a very earnest and blatant way, with the only stumbling point on their road to world domination being that The OC isn't on any more, because they'd have been perfect for it. To be fair to them, while their self-titled debut album does sound at times like it's been constructed entirely from listening to 80s compilation CDs, there is more to Jupiter One than their influences and they do have the knack for writing good indie pop-rock anthems, as there's plenty of them on here. It's all produced to within an inch of its life, and lacks any kind of grit or real passion of any kind, but if you're looking for inoffensive, catchy music that reminds you of your favourite new wave bands, then Jupiter One certainly tick all of the boxes.
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