News Singled Out: Top Five (12th March 2012)

Silly amount of great releases out this fortnight - it is with great chagrin that I omit from my top five the likes of Mmoths, Mount Eerie, VVVultures. My full playlist is to be found here but these are my favourite five things that I played on the most recent episode of Singles Out.

5. Apparat - Candil de la Calle
Listening to this is making me feel a little hasty for not having had Apparat’s last record ‘The Devil’s Walk’ on repeat since last September. It’s as cool as you’d expect from a Berlin-based techno producer, but instead of being sparse and harsh and cold, it’s softly layered and glitchy and full of almost yearning vocals. Out on 12’ on Mute Records.



4. Sinead O’Connor - The Wolf Is Getting Married
Sinead is so brilliantly nuts and I’m so glad she’s back. After her infamously filthy blog posts documenting her hunt for a willing victim, and her seven hour fifteen day (approximately) marriage (now, we are reliably informed, rekindled), she’s released an excellent new record, ‘How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?’, including a cover of close friend John Grant’s track ‘Queen of Denmark’. The familiar fragility in her voice is still there but there’s something jaded and knowing in her tone now too. Beautiful. This is the first single to be released from the LP and it’s out on 7’ on One Little Indian.



3. The Wave Pictures - Eskimo Kiss
The Wave Pictures are indie stalwarts by description, having been around since 1998 and self-released a few records before getting picked up by a label in 2006. What they do best is wit and clever, witty music is fine stuff indeed. There’s few who do it well - Stephen Merritt is one that instantly springs to mind (‘You know you enthrall me and yet you don’t call me/It’s making me blue/Pantone 292’ - Reno Dakota), as is the already previously mentioned John Grant (I’ve had it all the way up to my hairline/Which keeps receding like my self confidence/As if I ever had any of that stuff anyway - ‘Queen of Denmark’) This wit is borne out of a volatile combination of silliness and cynicism, bitterness and self-awareness; easy to get wrong, but the Wave Pictures manage this magnificently. It’s from their brand new album ‘Long Black Cars’ and is out on 7’ on Moshi Moshi.



2. Hooded Fang - Clap/Pinkunoizu - Parabolic Delusions

*SPLIT 7’ KLAXON*

Double trouble treats from two artists on Full Time Hobby; squelchy Danish crooning from Pinkunoizu and jangly surf-pop from Hooded Fang. Any other fortnight this would have been my #1, but everything was just too good. I like this enormously, and I will also be listening to both bands’ debut LPs, shortly forthcoming on the very same label.





1. Saint Etienne - Tonight
This is about the anticipation you feel before you go to see your favourite band play live, and about how one night can change your life. Hot Chip had a similar, though slightly darker, sentiment in ‘I Feel Better’, about finding salvation in nightlife and all that jazz. It’s about queueing outside a club or venue and hearing the bass thump inside, and that inescapable hope and excitement that good pop music fosters. It’s a powerfully emotion-stirring statement and Saint Etienne nail it here. There’s also an ace 2 Bears remix kicking about, which I cannot find anywhere online to embed (#firstworldproblems) but worth hunting down. It’s on 7’ on Heavenly Records



Listen to Lucy’s latest show here.