Album of the week
Lana Del Rey – Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
At 77 minutes it’s far too long, with the album’s mid-section, in particular, drifting into a tedious slog. But the record also contains some of Del Rey’s best work, with the title track, Candy Necklace and Margaret as highlights. It’s largely the kind of moody ballads we’ve come to expect from her, although some stylistic detours add new flavours (with mixed results).
Tunes of the week
Big Break – No Face No Case
For fans of 90’s snooker-based Saturday night game shows, it’s Sheffield’s Big Break. I was going to see if I could stretch this tedious reference out further, but shoehorning in a comparison to Jim Davidson could have been risky.
The band have recently released their debut album; the charmingly titled, Angel’s Piss. It’s 21 minutes of what I like to think of as smash-and-grab punk. They rip through the album’s 12 songs, rarely breaking the 2 minute mark, and allowing little room to breathe. As the last review made clear, I’m all about quality control, and this album doesn’t even contemplate the idea of filler. For anyone that likes their rock music to be fast, loud, and shouty; then I’d highly recommend it.
The tune I’ve chosen here is somewhat of an outlier though. They slow the tempo down a couple of notches and allow a bit more melody to creep in. The anger that seems to fuel a lot of the songs turns to something more introspective; with frontman, Joseph Armstrong, adopting a weary, throaty howl which isn’t a million miles off Joe Strummer. And with the 2 minute mark approaching, they cut the song just as you think it may be approaching a big climax. Like, they briefly let you in on a softer side, but they’ve got to get back to smashing shit.
harf. – For You I’ll Wait
Whether deliberately or not, this dude is a bit of an enigma, with almost no searchable social media presence. It’s either a very clever or very ineffective marketing strategy. I listen to lots of songs each week trying to discover good new music for these posts, often on the back of random social media recommendations. But I’ve got no recollection of how I found this. The most I’ve been able to work out is he’s a songwriter, called Will Harford, based in Richmond, Virginia, and he’s released a few songs since 2021 (I did track down a LinkedIn page, but linking to that on a music blog seems weird).
And it’s a bit of a shame because this is good enough to be a breakthrough indie folk hit; somewhere between The Lumineers and Fleet Foxes. It’s a simple laid-back acoustic number with a slight country tinge, that manages to conjure up the feeling of warm summer evenings. And he’s got one of those voices that easily switches between a falsetto croon and a great throat-cracking drawl. The kind of thing that’d end up on a mobile phone ad or some shit. I’m a sucker for that stuff though.
Give yourself some better promotion, lad, cos this is really good.
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