Vampire Weekend – Mansard Roof

Wow, we almost missed a day. That’s what happens when you have a co-writer whose internet connection is partially frazzled. I suppose I can’t blame him for technological mishaps, he tries.

So, as a last minute, totally unprepared piece of aural delight, I’m going to take that ‘Itunes Exclusive’ that’s now up by Vampire Weekend and plow through a quickie review.

Now, everyone is kicking up a big fuss about Vampire Weekend, and I don’t see what is so brilliant about them. In all honesty though, I’ve not heard much by them, so I shouldn’t judge so harshly based on this one single. In all frankness, I feel that I’m the one listening to it, so my opinions should be swayed by it, and they really struggle to fall on the side of good or bad.

The song, Mansard Roof, is a short piece of piffly indie pop that deserves no more mention than other short pieces of piffly indie pop. It’s like if you see a dog going for a walk, you don’t think “WOW!” everytime you see it; it’s routine. It’s not out of the ordinary. The song is, simply put, bland. It’s by no means terrible, but it sounds to me like a poor take off of bands like Beirut and, strangely, Panda Bear.

I say, as if my word is law on this one:

Get it if you must, but really, if this is Vampire Weekend, they are by no means special at all. I think all those bigwigs who said they’d be something big in 2008 should think again, and think about how many people would cope with this monotony for more than five consecutive plays.

I give it a mediocre 4 of 10.

British Sea Power – Waving Flags E.P.

First, apologies for being a day behind on this one, but what’s a day in the blog world? Oh, a lot? Really. Okay. It won’t happen again.

British Sea Power, one of the best alternative bands to come out of ‘the North’ (that is Northumbria, England, to be exact) in forever. It takes a lot of doing to make a band this listenable in the Alt-Rock genre, and still make them have a more ‘rock’ sound than the popular indie bands.
The boys of BSP released Waving Flags, the first single off their upcoming album Do You Like Rock Music?, yesterday and it is surprisingly good. I realise we are behind the times, what with the professionals like Zane Lowe and other music journos having their grubby little mits on it for the last god-knows-how-long, but, this is legality and all done on a shoestring budget.

The single itself, as has been stated by innumerable sources, is amazing. It’s been compared to the Arcade Fire, and the person who said that should be shot; it is nowhere near the farce that is the Arcade Fire. If they need seven people to make a decent song, then to make a song with four people, that is as good as one made by seven ‘talented musicians’, is really an achievement.

If you go and buy it, the CD format comes along with the ‘B-side’ extra of an 8 minute long track called Everybody Must Be Saved, and I suppose it falls into the same category as the 14 minute long monster-track Lately from The Decline of British Sea Power, in that it’s a good song, but it’s also good background music. This second track is almost more experimental, reminding me of Animal Collective, if they were more mature.

I’ll go along with the general flow, because, aside from the Arcade Fire comment, the general feeling with this single is right: If enough people heard it, it would be the single of the year, or at least a close contender for those laurels. It should at least be better than the overplayed trash that was Kaiser Cheif’s Ruby, eh?

Since I’m fond of giving a rating to everything, I decree that Waving Flags, as one of the first singles of 2008 that has reached my impure ears, should recieve no less than a high 9 of 10.

Now, I recommend you all hit Itunes, and anywhere else you can get your hands on this, and download it, legally!