Albums Released 30 June 2008
Melodic
The arms in question belong to New York multi-instrumentalist Todd Goldstein, a man who lists ranging influences from the country sound of Jim Reeves to smoky, sozzled Lee Hazlewood to the quirkyness of David Byrne and they're influences that shine through on 'Kids Aflame'.
Highlights of this impressive record include 'Sad Sad Sad', a classic swing track done acoustically and crooned by Goldstein. It's an inventive and original excursion from the album's general recipe which is better summed up by 'John the Escalator', a track which brings to mind an in-form R.E.M. set adrift on a sea of reverb.
Elsewhere special mention must be made of 'Tiger Tamer' which sounds like Editors with some purpose and fire in their bellies, not simply regurgitating Interpol for a slightly more conservative audience and boasts such lyrics as 'Your Daddy's on fire / Your Mommy's a liar'.
Perhaps best of all though is 'Eyeball'. A huge 'home on the range' style country epic concerning that immortal question - 'why do humans have eyes?'. There's certainly a reason we have ears...it's to listen to genius alt.rock whimsy such as this.
Richard Brown
SOIF Music
Who could ever have imagined, while listening to the over-produced tripe that litters the chart these days, that what music needs, really needs, right now is the light opera and dead bird imagery of Society of Imaginary Friends aka Alfie Thomas, Louise Kleboe and Chris Brierley?
'For Those Online' is an (unintenionally?) hilarious rock opera tribute to MySpace and Facebook with all the opening pomp and ceremony of an Andrew Lloyd-Webber composition and such lyrics as 'You can download me / But I come at a price / You don't know what to do with me / Seek parental advice'. Later, 'Night of Power' comes across as full-blown opera, unsettling and enthralling in equal measures and the perfect antidote to out-of-shape pipe fitters who pop up on TV talent shows barking out pizza restaurant-versions of 'Nessun Dorma'.
Louise possesses quite a voice, but occasionally it can prove somewhat overbearing. Neither 'Easy Way' nor 'Going Home' are an easy listen. However, when spread liberally like the accordian-polka-tinged 'Flower on the Wall' or 'The Lovely Rain' which, if accompanied by the right imagery, would drive the most thick-skinned to helpless tears, the combination of strong vocals and expert musicianship are heart-racingly overwhelming.
Richard Brown
Sunday Best
What hits you immediately on Bristol musican Kid Carpet's second LP is that album opener 'Hitting the Wall' is a long, long way from the sound of a disenfranchised musician gurning 'No-one gives a shit if yer not special' over the wind-up organ sound of a sixties children's TV series that greeted us on the Kid's first LP 'Ideas and Oh Dears'. Yes Dorothy, we're not in Hamleys any more, we're in a Stourbridge record shop in 1988 and deliberating whether to buy that new Pop Will Eat Itself EP or not like a broke teenager keen to get into this 'grebo' scene.
It's a shame then that Kid's production skill has not reached 'puberty' at the same time as his songwriting. Recent single 'I Don't Want To Fall In Love With You' still sounds like an early demo with an extremely basic rhythm track and the jarring rasp of a bad string sample which just won't go away. Using a similar formula, but to considerably better effect is the late Poppies sound of 'All Join On' later on in the album - a track that would have been a far more effective fanfare to announce the 'coming of age' Kid. Except has he come of age? Half this record still has its roots tied inextricably to the toy shop.
This half gives us the casio sound of 'Still Life' - think Joe Strummer produced by a sugar-addled Adam and Joe - and 'I Don't Believe', a bizarre sea shanty waltz that recalls, nay rips off Carter USM at their 1992 height of popularity and eventually couples Paul McCartney's bull frog bass with tall tales about paternal werewolves and the like. Later, Tom Jones' 'Help Yourself' is covered in such a childlike way you picture the big Welshman reunited with a troupe of Muppets while Kid Carpet smirks away in the corner.
'Can't Stop the Pop' was actually put forward for consideration by the uK for Eurovision and the manic action-led chorus is exactly the kind of tragic yet addictive eurobeat that could have shattered the Eastern bloc this year. It's also the kind of thing Kid Carpet does best and, if Sunday Best had a bottomless sample clearance budget, then we'd really hear the kid let fire. As it stands, music fans of a certain vintage should find familiarity in both halves of this LP, but youngsters should keep well away lest they become bald, fat and start shouting 'You Fat Bastard' at an empty stage. For some of us, even Kid Carpet it seems, there's no hope there.
Richard Brown
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