Pathetic Reviews: Granite Statue
The latest (not that it's all that new) blood-sucking trend in the music industry seems to be British two-part singles, in which one song is released as a CD-5 (and perhaps vinyl, depending on the record company) with two different sets of B-sides. The goal here is for the obsessive fan to purchase a single song at least three times -- once on the album and on two different singles. Here in the states, the singles seem to go for about ten bucks a pop, making this a moderately expensive endeavour. Naturally, the Pathetic Caverns had to investigate and evaluate this phenomenon on behalf of you, our loyal readership, and we chose, in our significant wisdom, to experiment with slabs of the chimey, guitar-based, female-voxed pop purveyed by Salad and Echobelly. Salad offers a little less bang for the buck than Echobelly, with only two b-sides per single.
The lead track, from the album Drink Me, (not yet available in the states, get with it Island) is a charming little slice of pop. I'm not sure the lyric makes much sense - something about statues coming when the weather's warm?? - but I don't care - Marijne's (no last name) wispy, breathy and growly (by turns) vocals are winning, and songsmith Paul Kennedy's guitar work is very satisfactorily crunchy where it needs to be. It's pretty generic, but nicely done.
Part I offers two additional songs in the same vein, "Rip Goes Love and Lust" and "Roadsex" (hmm, a thematic relationship?); part II is quirkier with a Beatles cover ("It's for You") and a pleasantly cheesy theme song for an imaginary western ("Ici Les Amigos"). I recommend part II over part I. "Granite Statue" was produced by Mark Freegard (with additional production and mix by Lightning Seed Ian Broudie). The rest of it was produced by Graeme Holdaway and the band.
