Wrong – Depeche Mode
This is the first single from upcoming album, Sounds of the Universe, due to be released in April.
The song begins with fuzzed out vocals uttering the word ‘wrong’ over and over again before steadily chugging its way into a skuzzy blown-speaker rock mode, grinning occasionally with woozy keyboards the way Alice’s mad orange cat seems to grin every time Alice has a sip of the gigantic cup of tea.
That is the kind of distortion and electronic extravagance that only the world of a synth-pop band like Depeche Mode could fit into the tiny crowded compartments of radio-worth.
The track as it progresses unfolds subtle layers whether it’s passing sound effects like police sirens and breaking glass to the variegated melodic grip of Martin Gore’s vocals.
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How Could You - Saliva
The song is taken off the band’s recent album, Cinco Diablo, and when you hear it you almost can’t believe this is the same band that once championed raging, smack-my-rock-up classics like Always.
While apologizing to those who try to mosh for the band as a modern hard rock outift, we have to say that this is a song that testifies to the pop rock back alleys that many have veered into when the guttering vocals just don’t deliver the package.
Open wide that growling vocal box of hard rock tenacity …look inside…and yes, it does narrow into a dark, rarely lit up but always pumping with life-blood back alley of pop rock.
Some might gasp in disbelief, ‘how could you’. But it has to be said that releasing a pop-rock song with a self-pitiful wallow on infidelity (which has only as much emotion as there are corny rhymes in the lyrics) is not necessarily a sell-out.
It just means the band is a little more radio ready.
But for those who thrive in rock steady jams like Bleed For Me and power ballads like Rest In Pieces, you just might feel a little cheated with this one.
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Zero – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Draped in guitarist Nick Zinner’s manipulations of electroclash sounds, this power pop track has all the pulsating combinations of another dance floor winner for the Brooklyn trio.
The track is dubbed in an underlying 80’s synth element that is crafted to perfection by vocalist Karen O’s Blondie meets Republica yelps and yowls. It’s the kind of song and sound that can win over the generation of mums who always meant to shake their bottoms on the hood of a White Snake’s Car (according to Bowling for Soup).
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