revieWS Ben Lee, The Rebirth of Venus (New West) - By George Newman I wasn’t sure if I wanted to listen to another Ben Lee album, if only for the fact he’s dedicated his latest to “Venus, the goddess of love and beauty”. Sounded pretty lame. But I was surprised to find The Rebirth of Venus,, his seventh studio album, a pretty decent listen. ‘What’s so bad (about feeling good)?’ picks up where ‘Catch my Disease’ left off and you can’t help but singing along to the chants of “no guilt, all pleasure”. But Lee doesn’t make it easy to like him. With ‘I Love Pop Music’, he said he wanted to write a song that was both political and hard hitting. But Lee has confused social commentary with simply singing the news. For example: “there are six billion people on this planet and not enough drinking water, religious intolerance creating geopolitical instability”. Not exactly Bob Dylan’s ‘Masters of War’, is it? But my real problem with Ben Lee is that his melodies sneak up from behind you. You can listen to his lyrical garbage, then suddenly find yourself singing “I love pop music, sprinkle sugar through it”, which is just as catchy as it is naff. And on The Rebirth of Venus,, the melodies are plenty. If you’re going to buy it, make sure you get the collector’s edition, if only for Lee’s cover of the Ataris song ‘Ben Lee’, about their extreme dislike of, surprise surprise, Ben Lee. On it, he sings “I’d love to kick you in the face, break your legs and throw you from a train.” For someone who wrote the song ‘I’m a woman too’, he’s sure got balls.
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Yves Klein Blue, Draw Attention to Themselves (Dew Process) - By Elaine Jerry “Lick up a dream that seemingly sings with a whistling neon breath”, Michael Tomlinson sings on Polka. I’ve got no fucking idea what it means, but I like it. By the 4th track of Yves Klein Blue’s Draw Attention to Themselves e.p., it’s clear you’re listening to something special. To get an idea: think lovechild of the Strokes and the Kooks, with a little bit of Spoon (let’s call him ‘spook’). There’s so much talent and variety here that their debut album, soon to be released, promises to be one the best of 2009. I’m still not convinced of the band name – or the unassuming song titles – but who really cares when they’ve got songs like ‘Silence is Distance’ which burst out of your stereo with supreme confidence. Make sure to catch them at ‘The Big O’on the 3rd of March, I’ll be standing somewhere up the front.
Distinction
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby by Holly Reid In a blend of broken-hearts, compilation tapes and top-five pop culture lists, Nick Hornby’s 1995 novel is a far from outdated look into the mind of a thirty-something single man. Rob, a slightly neurotic and far too analytical owner of a failing record store, is struggling to rebound after his latest break-up. In an effort to understand the complexities of life and love – and simply just to pass the time - he revisits the subjects of his all-time, top-five most memorable split ups. Despite being a self-proclaimed arsehole, Rob’s sarcastic humour, vulnerability and lack of ambition make him a loveable, yet equally pitiable, main character. His all too honest internal monologue, constant need to share an extensive knowledge of the arts and total submission to a life of mediocrity, make for a unique insight into nineties pop-culture and a comforting I’m-glad-I’m-not-this-guy read. “‘Have you got any soul?’ a woman [in the store] asks the next afternoon. That depends, I feel like saying; some days yes, some days no. A few days ago I was right out, now I’ve got loads, too much, more than I could handle. I can see she wouldn’t be interested... though, so I simple point to the soul I have, right by the exit, next to the blues.” TOP-FIVE THINGS I LIKED ABOUT HIGH FIDELITY 1. That it’s punctuated with top-five lists, ranging from favourite episodes of Cheers to topfive records that make you feel nothing at all. 2. That even if the modern male is a mystery to you, don’t stress, because Hornby reveals that he probably understands himself a lot less than you do. 3. “It’s no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your record collections disagree violently or if your favourite films wouldn’t even speak to each other if they met at a party”. 4. That it falls somewhere in between Hornbys’ best (About a Boy) to worst (A Long Way Down) novels that I’ve read and is still a really good read. 5. That it is available for only $9.95 from the orange-and-white Penguin range from most bookstores. Distinction+