Mabye my tastes are changing, but I haven't been all that impresed with a lot of the stuff the unsigned scene is kicking out these days. I haven't been blown away by a band I didn't know about before, for quite a while, and that's a problem. It's a problem because that's why I love going to gigs where I only know one band, that's why I love getting unknown CDs through the door, it's beacuse in the past, nearly half of the bands have been absolutely brilliant. So understandably, the drop in great unsigned music is a bit of a drag. All of the signed stuff that had passed through these pages has on the whole, got a decent rap, but I suppose the statistics are catchingup with us. There just ain't enough good bands around.
But, and it's a big but, a certain CD came through today which changed all that. I have to admit, I wasn't optimistic when I leafed through the press release, but this band was Nebraska. If youdon't know anything about how london's music scene has developed in the past few months, one thing you can't forget is the Pop of the Tops scene in New Cross, the birthplace of Art Brut, and more famously, Bloc Party. And nebraska were on the books of the very same PR companies that spearheaded this angular, stylish movement. And it's that vein that I love so much at the moment.
Nebraska open up this three track with the glorious Anhedonia, flipping a coin between spiky driven guitar chords and smooth strung out choruses, it's a song with all the ingredients of that art-wave rhythm, but slips in some of the best vocal lines I've heard for a while. It's all like this, all this good. All plonking a nice big mush of indie warmth where you want it and breaking it up with crisp, contextual melodies. It's more aspirational than emotional but the vocals still carry that crushing edge, more often reserved for bands twice their fame. The songwriting is perfect, every tune wouldn't sound out of place as a single release, they've got it all. Blinding melodies, tight rhythms and after two listens, I'm already singing it to myself.
Take any band you like at the moment, chuck out every moment in a song that you think they could have done better, put in everything you think they should have done, make it a whole lot better, and you've got this three track CD. Thanks for restoring my faith in unsgined music Nebraska, and what a way to do it. |
