Underrated Album of the Week

Having made two of the greatest Hip Hop songs of all time with 2001's 'Get Ur Freak On' and 'Work It' released the following year, Missy Elliott was on a roll. Working alongside producer Timbaland, Missy Elliott had helped create a musical world of her own, one that pushed the boundaries of pop without losing any of its immediacy. 'Work It', for example, featured a chorus of backwards rapping whilst 'Get Ur Freak On' somehow managed to marry hip hop beats with a Bengali melody and lyrics written in Hindi. Things started to unravel, however, with 2003's This Is Not A Test!, an album that would go on to be Elliott's lowest seller. Lead single 'Pass The Dutch' failed to create an event quite like it's predecessors and people questioned whether the creative partnership had lost its Midas touch. Aware of the pressure to try something new Elliott retreated to the studio and decided to limit her collaborations with Timbaland to just a handful of songs. Eventually, The Cookbook would open with two Timbaland productions, 'Joy' and 'Partytime'.

By opening the album with the only Timbaland/Elliott compositions the listener is lured into a false sense of security, the minimal patter of 'Joy' and the rumbling bass of 'Partytime' as comforting to Elliott fans as anything from her previous albums. From here the album really takes off, as if working with other producers (notably Rich Harrison, Scott Storch, The Neptunes to name but a few), offered Elliott a freedom that had been missing from her recent output. Certainly, the single 'Lose Control', produced by Elliott, sounds like the most fun she's had in a while and even manages to be good despite the presence of Fatman Scoop.

Elsewhere, Elliott tackles her inner demons on the Mary J.Blige duet 'My Struggles' and hip hop ballad 'Teary Eyed', before returning to her rapid fire flow on the frantic 'Can't Stop'. Highlight of the entire album is the phenomenal 'On & On', produced by The Neptunes. Opening with a chest vibrating low bass rumble, it sounds like it was created in a lab somewhere in space and beamed down to earth to show everyone how it's done. Brilliantly, it doesn't have a chorus, just Pharrell grunting "uh, uh, oh, uh, uh, oh". Despite a host of special guests- Blige, M.I.A, Slick Rick, Fantasia, Ciara- the real star is always Elliott, her lyrics as funny as the music is innovative. Amazingly, the album peaked at number 33 in the UK, proving once and for all that people are dullards.

Rob's New Music Corner

Like a major multinational company, Musick is secretly funded and controlled by a sinister Svengali, a mystery figure who pulls the strings and pays the wages. Kind of like Guy Hands. In order to keep my job - and my kneecaps- in tact, I have finally given in and allowed Rob (that's all I can divulge) his chance to share some of his favourite new music. Rob is obviously incredibly busy so I will write his words down for you to enjoy.

First up is Canadian three piece, Plants and Animals.



As you can see they look a bit like Flaming Lips, lots of unruly hair and zany props, but musically it's all thrummed guitars, pianos and some beautiful harmonies. Check out 'Bye Bye Bye' on their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/plantsandanimals

Next up is Orphans & Vandals, a five piece who probably hail from Shoreditch by the look of them. They have exotic names such as Quinta and Raven, and are, as you can see, terribly moody:



Lead singer Al Joshua looks a bit like Sean Penn and seems intent on bringing back the spoken word intro, much like a younger Jarvis Cocker. New single 'Terra Firma' is pretty good (although he sounds too much like Johnny Borrell for my liking), they're just missing that one killer song. Listen to them here: http://www.myspace.com/orphansandvandals

Fingers crossed my job is secure...

The Cats Miaow

Like a Politician I like to pretend to be democratic whilst at the same time stealing people's ideas and taking all the credit. So, here are two bands that I have discovered ALL BY MYSELF simply through trawling the internet, speaking to all the right people and generally just being a magnet for amazing music. Strangely, both bands have a connection to cats, see if you can spot it...

First up is a band called Cats In Paris. I know very little about them other then the fact that there's four of them and that this song 'Foxes' is ruddy brilliant, a great mix of Stereolab's keyboards and Belle & Sebastian's twee, er, ness.



They also have some other songs on their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/catsinparis

Next up is a band called Talkdemonic who have an album called Beat Romantic out now, and a new one out in September. The song below is called 'Mountain Cats'.



I don't use the word 'lush' very often, but it's appropriate in this instance. Unfairly, I have taken a snippet of the blurb from their myspace page (www.myspace.com/talkdemonicmusicmaking) in the hope of describing their sound:

"Like nothing the Pacific Northwest has seen before, Talkdemonic melds the primal, the classical and the modern to create songs that are as sweeping in scope as they are shattering in intensity"

I love record company speak. I prefer this though:

"Sounds kinda like an acoustic instrumental Radiohead playing fiddles and banjos in a forest" Christoff Spurr

Perfect.

The Lost Art of Romance

Sometimes nothing can stand in the way of true love. There comes a point when the words expressed from one lonely heart to another are so potent and so beautiful that everyone just has to stand back and swoon. This rare moment has happened dear readers to none other then indie spunk Luke Pritchard from The Kooks. That's right, the man who has no doubt been the soundtrack to numerous teenage snogs has declared, in the sweetest of terms, his yearning desire for actress/TV presenter/indie-pop play thing Carmen Electra. This is what our very own Romeo had to say:

"I'd like to fuck Carmen Electra".

I know, I cried too. How that man manged to utter those words without breaking down is beyond all human capacity, the guy's some kind of machine. He also went on to claim that the reason he could lucidly divulge his inner most feelings without fear of retribution was because of him being in a "big band". I put this to the test:

Me: Hi, is that Carmen Electra's agent?

Agent: It is, yes. Who's calling?

Me: It's Luke Pritchard.

Agent: Who?

Me: From The Kooks.

Agent: Who?

Me: Just tell Carmen I want to fuck her. Tell her I'm in a big band. She'll understand.

Agent: Carmen's actually got a boyfriend.

Me: Yeah, but is he in a big band? Did he once go out with Katie Melua? No, exactly. Tell Carmen to call me when she's realised what I'm offering.

Agent: OK, will do.

Proof, if proof were needed that being in a third rate indie band and having rubbish hair means diddly squat to someone who's been in Baywatch. Soz Luke.

Here's Luke being 'sexy' and trying to play the guitar.

The wait is over...

Pop music's been all about the comeback recently. From Take That to the Spice Girls, from All Saints to Boyzone, we've all marvelled at how well the old 'magic' has been recreated with barely hidden financial desperation...I mean artistic inspiration. But there's been one band missing, hasn't there? Come on, think back, which band do you long to see on stage giving it their all to a cheap-sounding backing track? That's right, New Kids On The Block are back! Donny, Jordan, Brian, Tito, Jermaine and Randy are ready to reclaim their crown with an all out aural onslaught in the shape of new single 'Summertime'.



No it's not a cover of the DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince 'classic', but rather a fairly middling R&B jam with a chorus that runs something like this: "I think about you in the summertime/ Let's make this song more anodyne". As with most of these comeback bands their name is a slight problem; claiming to be the new kids on any block is somewhat stretching the realms of fantasy now (Spice 'Girls', 'Boy'zone, All 'Saints', etc). Also, it begs the question (on so many levels), why? Why do people want to watch slightly portly men in their mid-thirties gyrating to songs they used to like fifteen years ago but have probably never played since? Is nostalgia that powerful a force?

Let's devise a list of bands we want to re-form next. I'll start us off:

- Bros
- EYC
- S Club Juniors (the junkie years)
- Upside Down
- Bad Boys Inc.
- Worlds Apart
- Girl Thing
- Menswe@r
- Eternal
- BBMak
- Colour Me Badd
- Cleopatra
- Damage
- MN8
- O-Town
- Ultimate Kaos

Email me any more suggestions to thisitemneedswork@lazy.com

EDIT: The clear winners of the above poll were MN8. You people are sick.

Urban Foxes

Today is new release Monday, as I'm sure you're all aware. So, off I trundled to my local music emporium to purchase the debut album by the much-touted Fleet Foxes.



Upon my arrival I was met by the new Alanis Morissette album and a carelessly knocked out Radiohead Best Of, but no Fleet Foxes. It seems the album has been pushed back until June 16.

I spoke to someone at their record label (I didn't) and this is what he had to say (he didn't):

"Unfortunately, due to the fact that everyone with ears is going mental about how good this album is we've changed the release date so we can cash in on all the amazing press they've been receiving".

It's capitalism gone mad I tell you. Curses.

I couldn't leave empty handed so I purchased Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours, which is really quite something. You should give it a listen, or ask me to do you a copy.

Underrated Album of the Week (for Rob)

It's been duly noted by Musick's one sole reader that this weekly feature has been anything but, with only one edition appearing so far. This is clearly a postmodern manipulation of the very idea of 'weekly', a semantic interpretation of the realms of time and space. Ahem. So, without further ado, the weekly column returneth...

You know when you hear people talking about 'those difficult second albums' they may be thinking about Elastica's forever delayed follow-up to 1995's self-titled debut. The Menace was released in 2000 long after everyone had given up hope that it would ever see the light of day, resulting in a chart peak of no. 24 (their debut album had reached no. 1). Without the Britpop hullabaloo to support it and coming at a time when dad rock was just taking off again (cheers Coldplay) the album was widely ignored. But listening to The Menace now there's much to admire among its 13 tracks. Songs like the brilliant 'Mad Dog Gad Dam', 'Generator', 'KB' and 'Your Arse My Place' are as good as the songs from their debut whilst The Menace also stretches their musical chops, taking in everything from The Breeders ('Human') to Eno-esque soundscapes on 'Miami Nice' and 'My Sex'. They also pay homage to one of their heroes, Mark E. Smith, with the Fall-aping 'How He Wrote Elastica Man' on which the man himself also appears.

The album's lack of success wasn't helped by the fact that the band chose a cover as the first single ('Da Da Da' originally by Trio), which takes some balls (read petulance) when you've kept your fans waiting for five years before releasing any 'new' material. Factor in the fact that the album was written and recorded following singer Justine Frischmann's much-publicised split with Blur's Damon Albarn and the subsequent commercial and critical failure only added to the ammunition of the (mainly male) music critics who had always maintained that Elastica's songs were written by Albarn. It's fair to say that The Menace is a tetchy, troubled album (lots of drugs were consumed during it's protracted genesis), one that shifts around just as you're beginning to get to grips with it but it's far from the failure people might label it as.

Fact: The artwork was done by none other then Maya Arulpragasam...aka singer/rapper/global style icon M.I.A, who was studying at Art college and used to crash on Justine Frischmann's floor. It's a fact, I didn't say it was an interesting one.