Weekly Column: The Hot Five
- Written by Tom Fake
The Hot Five – My views on five tracks that have attracted my interest in any given week, usually with an older track thrown in the mix for something a bit different. Tracks usually concentrate on guitar-based releases, but really focusing on anything and everything that comes to my attention.
Track of the Week: Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams – ‘Get Lucky’
It wouldn’t be anything else this week. This prelude to their fourth studio album Random Access Memories, their first proper attempt in eight years, shuns their electronic roots for a bit of funk. No, it’s not necessarily what I expected, but it shows that Daft Punk can essentially do whatever they want and make it awesome. It broke streaming records on the almighty Spotify too, so I can’t be the only one lovin’ a bit of Daft Punk at the moment. I’m just hoping that Glastonbury rumour turns out to be true! We’re up all night to get lucky.
Deap Valley – ‘Gonna Make My Own Money’
I have no reasoning for this theory, but I get the impression that Quentin Tarantino would love this track. It also appears that I’m a year late with this. I’m gonna go with it anyway, because this track is a bit of alright. I think that Jack White and Alison Mosshart would have to listen to this track a few times to clarify that it’s not actually them performing on the track. It’s so Dead Weather, and that’s no bad thing, its an example of modern blues rock at it’s best (and you can never say that without mentioning Jack White at least once). According to Wikipedia Deap Vally are due to release their debut album this year on Island Records, who they signed to after releasing this track. They’ve definitely got to be one to watch out for.
Florence + the Machine – ‘Over The Love’
Oh my days. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Florence Welch, but this is sending chills down my spine. For anybody who get’s the ‘green light’ reference this song is just taken to another level. It was released last week and was recorded for Baz Luhrmann’s new adaptation of The Great Gatsby. It’s such a subtle song, and the arrangement really allows for Flo to belt out the vocal melody. It left me oddly speechless, so I’m going to leave it there. Enjoy.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – ‘Animal X’
Another one of my favourite artists. This song was released for Record Store Day (hope you all had a great day and bought something nice!) not that I managed to get hold of it. This to me sounds just like a classic Nick Cave B-side, and I’m not making that out to be a bad thing I promise! For anyone who has heard ‘Accidents Will Happen’, the B-side to ‘Dig Lazarus. Dig!!!', you will know what I mean … It’s sort of less refined than the Bad Seeds’ album material, a bit like Grinderman was/is in comparison. It’s also got some great lyrics, as many Nick Cave tracks do, and is more forceful than Cave’s most recent album, Push The Sky Away. Again, enjoy!
Hidden Track of the Week: Portishead – ‘Roads’
Okay, again perhaps not ‘hidden’, but this album track is just fantastic. I’ve been so into Dummy recently, which won 1995’s Mercury Music Prize. I definitely now class it as one of the best albums ever made, and its songs like this that really emphasise my reasoning. Portishead’s trip hop style is so emotive, and still sounds so relevant with bands like the XX reimagining a minimalist sound almost twenty years later. Beth Gibbons’ vocals are enthralling combined with the loops, samples and scratches of the backdrop created by Geoff Barrow. It’s not what she is singing, it’s the manner and conviction of the way she says it that is totally captivating. Check out the entire album if you haven’t already and you like what you ear!