BARRACKS

Posted by Brianna - filed in Events

noisettes1

In this case, the most likely thing you’ll think about the music is that it’s good. It’s a good example of a pop record, simply done and all the better for it, but it’s also quite moving, and, unlike the kind of album that someone like Britney makes, it lacks the presence of totally ambivalent fillers around the singles. Instead there are the upbeat radio ones, the upbeat album-y ones, and then some surprising little gems that throb quietly at the heart of the record. The first one of these is the opener ‘Sometimes’ which in the lyric of “sometimes we start over, and go solo”, contains a universal pathos not heard since ‘Eternal Flame’ by the Bangles. Then there’s ’24 Hours’, a track largely ignored by most album reviews, but which, in the simple melancholy of its central hook (see title), should be taught in a class on songwriting. These songs positions as number one and number four on the album, also indicate that the band treat their introverted moments with as much importance as the potential hits.

But of course, on a record like this, you don’t overlook the rhythm. The Noisettes do rhythm exceptionally well. You will have heard, of course, the number 2 single, with its title that could have been chosen by a title-generating computer programme, and you may have found it strangely un-obnoxious. Well, the same goes for most of the big tracks on this record. Where a lesser band would have had you grinding your teeth at something as relentlessly upbeat as ‘Saturday Night’, the Noisettes have you both charmed and un-annoyed – maybe even impressed that they slipped in the word ‘shenanigans’. Then there’s the sixties moments, about which there is absolutely no dilemma. ‘Wild Young Hearts’ and ‘Never Forget You’, in their full-bodied Phil Spector glory, are the crowning jewels of this album. Jubilant and anthemic, there’s even a hint of Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ in the closing minute of the former – a musical trigger that reminds you of all the great, unashamed pop songs you’ve ever enjoyed, and rockets the Noisettes, in their best moments, right up to their league. – Drowned in Sound

With:
The Magic Wands
Barracks