I've been needing something to clean my musical palate of late, given that Hard-Fi's abominable single "Cash Machine" seems to be playing everywhere, all the time. If you haven't yet had the displeasure, the track is musically not so much workmanlike as Stakhanovite in its dreary plodding, while the lyrics would make a sixth-form poet blush. Apparently we're all like, slaves to, like, the system, man, working for the ATM of the title.
I'm usually offered the "just turn the radio over" response when I get worked up about things like this, and yes, Hard-Fi are just four harmless - if talentless - young men from Staines. But bad art is bad art: it slows progress and casts a pall over popular culture.
So: cleaning one's palate. Find something different, something outre, something attention-seekingly controversial - like The Indelicates' "Waiting for Pete Doherty to Die". A title that sounds like a Channel 5 programme idea belies a bitter-sweet, folk-tinged bit of acoustic soul-searching typical of this fascinating new band.
I long for the day when it's not necessary to comment, as if surprised, that a band is intelligent, but for now The Indelicates are, and this is highly refreshing. You can download "Waiting . . ." for free from www.indelicates.com. It's also worth checking out the Kate Bush-esque piano track "Burn All the Photographs" and the peculiar Russian folk homage "Vladimir".
The most exciting of the MP3s on this site is "We Hate the Kids", a cynical, disaffected lo-fi anthem - "I wanted to believe in rock'n'roll stars/I wanted to believe in contemporary art" must be couplet of the year so far - that features a gripping duet by the vocalists, Simon and Julia Indelicate, over piano, bass and eventually a crudely filtered electric guitar that sounds all the better for its crudeness.
"Pop had a beginning, it grew and was tended/Now it is rotten. Let it be ended," they conclude. Thankfully, not all of it seems to be rotten.
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