In what may or may not become a recurring feature, I listen to some songs that are being released in the future and give my thoughts on them. Some of them don’t make a lot of sense. Some of them are quite erudite. I’ll leave it to you to make the distinction.

I’ve called it Pile of Promos because I have found these discs by rummaging through the tower of CDs on my desk. I’ll be honest with you, it frightens me. There’s every chance I’ll dislodge something by Scouting For Girls.

All of these songs are released on the 26th of July, would you believe it!

Tom Jones – Don’t Knock

Part of a double A-side affair with Did Trouble Me, this one. That’s despite being on a CD and therefore not having sides of any meaning, so perhaps it would be better marketed as “a CD with two tracks on it”.

This is pretty much what you’d expect from Tom Jones after getting the Johnny Cash treatment to revitalise his career. Sounds a bit like These Boots Were Made For Walking but not as good. Not for me really but I’m sure Tom Jones or blues fans will get a kick out of it. Plus it’s only two and a bit minutes so you can’t even cook an egg to it. 2/5

Incidentally Alright by Supergrass is the best song to cook an egg to because it’s exactly three minutes long. Try it at home! If you like eggs or Supergrass obviously.

Marina and the Diamonds – Oh No!

I bloody love Marina. She’s not exactly the most cerebral pop star you could ever hope to meet, but she’s got a good voice underneath all the robot noises on most of her album. Plus as I’ve already written about Mowgli’s Road and Hollywood I ought to write about this one as well. Put simply it’s a fantastic pop song and I will details just a few of the reasons below:

The Top Five Best Things About Oh No!

00:36 “I just wanna… change.” THE PAUSE IS GREAT.
01:21 “It has no a…ppeal” See 00:36.
01:36 “Doo doo doo, doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo”
02:08 Some wonderfully stereo panned drums.
02:40 As 01:36 but with no vocals on top and therefore better.

Amazing. 5/5

The Charlatans – Love is Ending

Sounds a bit like the Charlatans but crucially not quite enough to be as good as they used to. Christ knows what’s happened to Tim Burgess’s voice. Some nice drum bits towards the end.

Doesn’t really seem to have a hook and the chorus feels a bit throwaway. Still, nice enough and it does have a thoroughly mental ending, which is appreciated in these days of fade out. I don’t think anyone could ever say they didn’t like The Charlatans but at the same time you’d be hard pressed to find a die hard fan. 3/5

Violens – Acid Reign

I do not know this band, but I enjoy that their promo CD includes both a Radio Edit and Radio Edit (Clean Version). Just in case there’s any radio stations that want it a bit shorter but with all the sweary bits left in.

Terrible name for a band, despite the apparent goodness of the pun. This is quite similar to a lot of things I’ve heard lately and no doubt they’ll be quite popular. Echoey vocals in the verse and a pleasantly discordant piano in the chorus.

In short it’s a bit all over the place, which I am a fan of. Quite hard to pin down into any specific genre but it’s probably “alternative rock” with elements of every band of that genre. I hear New Order and Bloc Party and god knows what else in there. Rather nice.

They lose points for a fade out ending, though. I mean, really. 3/5

Crystal Castles – Baptism

Immediately this gains points over their previous single Celestica for not having a dog toy on, and for opening with an exceptionally enjoyable series of bleeps and bloops. If I had to ever define my favourite things in music, it’s bleeps shortly followed by bloops.

Coming straight out of the electro oonts oonts oonts school with some lovely shouty vocals over the top, I’m a fan. I’d probably prefer it as an instrumental but it presses all the right buttons. Get it. Because they’re a synth-based band and they press butt-oh I don’t know why I bother.

I will almost certainly be having a bedroom lightswitch rave to this track and I strongly urge you to do the same. Because of this simple fact it gets 5/5 and just edges out Marina for the Bitter Fingers Single of the Week, a prestigious accolade if there ever was one.

So there you have it – some words about some songs that are released on the 26th of July that I have taken the time to listen to.