This is one of my favourite singles of the year so far:
Simple, evocative, powerful; trading under the nom de guerre Monument Valley, Mancunian Ned Younger certainly knows how to turn a phrase that’s sure to draw me in. The sparse guitars and delicate atmospherics set a mood that’s at once malevolent yet somehow tender, and the booming, ghostly piano thumps in the chorus – so simple they’re hardly there – ground the lyrics so thoroughly that the track instantly feels like something important. Like all the best pop songs, the lyrics to Your Cover Blown sound both disarmingly specific and impossibly ambiguous all at the same time. In the months since this track was released I’ve listened to it countless times, and I’ve still no idea what it’s actually about, but every listen paints a picture that stays with me long after the song’s finished.
When it comes to the B-side, in contrast, there’s no mistaking what it’s about. Younger’s oblique, occasionally witty lyrical approach manages to breathe fresh life into the classic breakup song trope, and the end result is a track that’s almost as bewitching as the A-side. The single came out on Everybody’s Stalking back in May, and although I came late to the party and didn’t order my copy until mid summer, Your Cover Blown is easily my most-played 7″ of 2012 (so far, at least).
Back in February I posted about the Withered Hand record Heart Heart, which was the first release in a three-single subscription series run by Fence Records, called Chart Ruse. Each of the 7″ EPs included in the deal come in a fantastically well designed sleeve, with each one subtly altered for each band, and each consists of four tracks, one of which is a remix (*shudder*) and one of which is a vinyl only cut. The subscription has now run its course, and having already written about the WH record, I figure it’s only fair to give the other two bands a place on these illustrious pages as well. The bands in question are Delifinger and Barbarossa, and I should confess that before signing up for this deal I’d never heard of either band before (well, I’d seen Delifinger open for WH and King Creosote at the start of the year, but was decidedly underwhelmed).
The Delifinger record, much like his live performance, was not quite as good as I’d hoped it would be. All the ingredients seemed to suggest an interesting sonic palette and more than a little creativity, but Matthew Lacey – who’s project this is – comes across as far too earnest, and the songs themselves are just too slow. That sounds like a dreadfully obtuse bit of criticism, but there just wasn’t enough going on to maintain my interest; if the songs had been faster it might have worked, or if they’d had more, well, hooks they might have been able to sustain the slow pace. As a result, this single might appeal to those of a more morose aspect than myself, but as it stands the Escapes EP is a sincere and laudable effort, but not really my cup of tea.
The Barbarossa contribution covers much the same ground in terms of texture and approach, but where Delifinger doesn’t quite deliver, Barbarossa (again, it’s all the work of one man; this time it’s James Mathé) injects enough variety to keep things interesting. In fact, I think the real difference lies in the confidence of the performers; Butterfly Plague feels much more assured, much more decisive, much more confident. The record is, overall, perhaps a little too delicate for me to find myself really loving it, but it’s still good enough for me to pop it on the turntable on a fairly regular basis.
All in all, despite my disparaging remarks, this has been a rewarding series, and while I may have been rather dismissive of some of the music, the fact that it’s a unified collection of 7″s that sit nicely together on my shelf – and because it came from Fence – means that I’ll most likely find myself returning to it before too long. In the meantime, the next Fence series – this time called Buff Tracks – kicks of imminently, so now I’m waiting eagerly for that to arrive.
It’s not often that I dig out the ol’ vinyl player. If fact, being the fresh faced youth I am, the world of vinyl is one of which I have only a cursory knowledge. Anytime I want to enjoy my (admittedly meagre) 7″ collection I have to drag my dad’s old Pioneer PL-112D turntable out of the attic…
But it does appear that the 7″ is still alive and well. An old flatmate of mine had quite an impressive collection – all released in the last few years – and most singles seem to get a 7″ release alongside the newer formats. These two singles from Song, by Toad Records are available exclusively as vinyl (not counting digitally, which surely doesn’t count these days). The band behind this pair of singles is Meursault, already an Eaten by Monsters favourite owing to their fantastic debut LP, Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues.
Now I gather that William Henry Miller is something of a live favourite for hardcore Meusault fans, but I must admit that when it was finally released (on last years Nothing Broke EP) I wasn’t all that taken with it. To be honest, I wasn’t that taken with the whole EP; I enjoyed it, for sure, but having never seen the band live and getting to know them through their album, the change of direction (from dense electronic soundscapes with a furious energy to a slower, more contemplative acoustic sound) wasn’t what I was looking for. In the months following it’s release Nothing Broke has certainly grown on me, but in my opinion these two new singles mark a welcome return to the more “produced”* sound of Pissing/Kissing. In fact, the B-sides (The Dirt and the Roots and A Few Kind Words respectively) are the same cuts that were used on the album.
And now William Henry Miller Pt. II – a track that sounded decidedly like filler on Nothing Broke – is now the stand out track of both these singles; a feat made doubly impressive when you consider that A Few Kind Words (the Pt. II B-side) was one of my favourite tracks on the album, which was in turn one of my Top 10 Albums of 2008. And Pt. I has undergone a caterpillar/butterfly rebirth as well! The word on the street is that Meursault are on the brink of writing/recording a new album, and if that’s true then I really can’t wait.
And as being as posting both the A-sides would be a bit cheekey, here’s a live version (subtitled Dylan Gives the Clap) that they recorded during last year’s Homegame for The Waiting Room:
Eaten by Monsters 
