Polly Scattergood is the latest graduate of the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology to end up with a record deal. Past graduates from prestigious London school include Amy Winehouse, Imogen Heap, Adele and every member of the rock group Noisettes. It seems that school in “Fame” has nothing on this place. Her self-titled debut shows the promise of the school’s past alumni, even if it is a bit uneven at times. Most of that potential shows itself in “I Hate The Way,” a seven-minute confessional of an opening number that shares the details of a failed relationship with brutal honesty, stark imagery and sonic beauty. It’s an amazing song and a brilliant introduction to the album, so brilliant that nothing that follows has any chance of living up to it. Pitfalls that follow include “Please Don’t Touch,” a strange pop song about obsessive men, and “Bunny Club,” which features the befuddling refrain of “I’ve got a dog and a gun and I’m living in London.” Many of the lesser tracks on Scattergood’s self-titled debut try to confine her quirkiness to an electronic-pop sound, she works much better when she embraces her wild side, with bold and daring tracks like “Nitrogen Pink” and “Untitled 27” where she lets her voice and her powerful lyrics loose without restraint. It may not be perfect but the potential here is off the charts. Fans of Kate Bush and Emmy the Great should definitely take notice now. (Mute, 2009)
My first exposure to the Flaming Lips was seeing the video for “She Don’t Use Jelly” on MTV’s “Beavis and Butthead” show, which immediately pegged the Lips as a novelty in my mind (and not one that I even enjoyed all that much). How could one not see novelty in a song with a character who spreads Vaseline on her toast? This was kid stuff, and yes, I could be a silly kid, but where I drew my lines of tolerance for silliness were admittedly very arbitrary (example: I unironically enjoyed Mister Ed). As such, I completely shut out the Lips.
The buzz was loud and clear on Bee Thousand, the lo-fi masterpiece by Dayton alt-rockers Guided by Voices. This was the record that everyone positively had to own, so I borrowed it from a friend of mine…and totally didn’t get it. The songs aren’t finished! Are these demos? When lead singer Robert Pollard – whose last name should be a synonym for ‘prolific’ – saw a song to its completion, as he did on “Tractor Rape Chain,” I was definitely into it, but too many of the songs felt like piss takes to me, so I politely stayed off the bandwagon. Five years later, he made “Teenage FBI” with Ric Ocasek, which I loved, but still didn’t buy any of their records. Then they dropped Human Amusements at Hourly Rates, a compilation of Pollard’s more, ahem, finished songs, and I finally bit, and the disc scarcely left my CD player for months afterward. And then, of course, the band broke up just when I was beginning to appreciate them. Luckily, they recorded 16 albums in 17 years before calling it quits. The only question now is: which one do I start with? – David Medsker
