Village Green

Afternoon Strumpets,

A Village Green 3 Song review.

http://soundcloud.com/villagegreen

I`ll be honest with you, a rainy Tuesday afternoon at the back end of November, nursing a five year old with an ear infection does not lend itself to reviewing new music. Similarly I made a decision about five years ago to just stop listening to new music (with a few exceptions, Mr Waits and Ms Bush to name a grotesquely talented few) . I`d already heard more than enough stuff in my lifetime and found myself comparing everything to The Pixies anyway. So perhaps not the best time to take a listen to the new songs by a local band called Village Green.

Except….

Except it couldn`t have possibly have been a better time. The three tracks I listened to, “Sunshine” “Carnaby Street” and “Love Will Save the world” have enough life, energy, and more importantly good tunes in them to make my child`s continuous coughs and splutters sound like they might be getting better. Through what has to be described as fantastic production, I can hear echoes of Siouxsie, The Wonder Stuff, and early Oasis in the songs, particularly stand out tune “Carnaby Street”.

“Sunshine” with its immediate hook, and wondrous “dee diddley” guitar riff has a remarkable effortless quality, which if personal experience is anything to go by, means it was probably anything but to put together. And thank the Lords of whomsoever you may look to at times of sadness, it does what it sets out to, and then leaves. Realistic ego, and possibly a lack of (ahem) happy powder, means that what could have been a twelve minute 93 bar Guitar solo “anthem”, is tight without seeming slight.

“Carnaby Street” evokes memories of Morrissey between his cartoon Bowie/Stardust imitation phase and later Caricature Karaoke years, sadly all of which I love. The verse could easily have come from any song on “Vauxhall and I”. That`s not written lightly either, by the way. Both literally and metaphorically, as my sausage fingers hammer at these keys like a gang of Woodpeckers on Speed.

“Love Will Save the World” is I suppose the most “anthemic” and “Rawk” of the three, with a post five minute running time, which if I`m honest, I could have maybe trimmed a minute or so off, but that`s more a reflection of myself and my reasoning of things since hitting Forty. Unlike most bully`s Forty got straight back up, hit me back and has been doing so ever since. If you`re young and enjoy your solid, tight, loud, guitar based music, solid, tight, loud, and guitar based it`ll be right up your cul de sac.

Now I`m off to do the ironing, but at least I`ll have something different to be listening to.

Till the Next one,

Learn something new

Mark.