The Naked And Famous - Girls Like You [Song Review]

Click here or read below for my review of the latest single by The Naked And Famous. It was published on Pure Grain Audio.

Rating: 7 / 10

“Girls Like You” is the third single from The Naked And Famous début album, Passive Me, Aggressive You. The single is actually about two minutes shorter than the album version, but that does not particularly matter. The 126 extra seconds on the album is basically some unnecessary weird noises and slowly descending feedback.

The song, musically, is quite enjoyable. It is a mixture of shoegaze and electropop with a very infectious chorus. The track builds up to a nice climax, followed by a much improved twenty seconds of feedback and noise, compared to the album format. However, the main downside is that after a few spins, the listener realises that the originally infectious chorus of “don’t you know people write songs about girls like you?” becomes a little repetitive.

written by Will Lyon

Run Time: 3:59

Release Date: 06.06.2011

Ceremony - "Someday" [Song Review]

Click here or read below for my review of "Someday" by Ceremony. I was published on www.puregrainaudio.com today.

Some of you may have forgotten about Ceremony after they released their debut long play Rocket Fire in April this year. So I'm here to remind you of their brilliance.

"Someday" hit the music waves on January 26th, but despite it's relative modernity you could find yourself taken back to the eighties. New Order's much over-looked debut album Movement is the work that comes to mind when listening to "Someday". Like most early New Order songs it is noisy with distorted and ridiculously reverberating guitar licks. Thankfully, like New Order's efforts it is not overpowering and the solid synthesizer-esq bass helps smooth over the cracks. The accompanying thin drumming and almost emotionless voice of Paul Baker gets as close as it can to Movement without totally ripping it off. Although it must be said that seeking Ceremony's originality isn't helped by the fact that New Order released a song called "Ceremony"...

Enough of the comparisons.  Ceremony have their own sound and are (just) unique enough. Any fans of shoegaze really should give Rocket Fire a good hard listen and if not, at the very least try "Someday". It has plenty of melody packed together and I doubt many would be left disappointed after three blissful minutes. There is also the added bonus of actually being able to hear what Baker is singing, a rarity for a shoegaze band. Most singers appear to sing at their microphones through a brick wall.

Sure, there has been more than enough soft but noisy bands recently, but Ceremony are definitely one of the best.

Run Time: 3:25

Rating: 8/10