The Guide: PREVIEW music: NEW SINGLES
The Guardian – United Kingdom; Aug 27, 2005
IAN GITTINS
GORILLAZ Dare (Parlophone) A decade on from the bloodiest conflict of
the Britpop wars, it’s absurd to reflect that we even fleetingly
considered the Gallagher brothers creatively superior to Damon
Albarn. Yet the Blur man is largely absent from this latest, excellent
Gorillaz offering, a winningly facetious collage of futuristic
electro-doodles and squelches which is marred only by a post-pub
Mancunian dosser slurring a passable impersonation of Shameless
patriarch Frank Gallagher through the open studio window. Oh no, hang
on, that’s special guest star Shaun Ryder!
* GWEN STEFANI Cool (Interscope) She’s a helium-voiced Valley Girl,
her lyrics and interviews are packed with self-regarding Californian
psychobabble and her ambition makes her look pretty ugly, yet Stefani
has a sure-footed pop sensibility that consistently renders her
confections hugely beguiling. Cooing over the vexed subject of
maintaining a civilised relationship with an ex-lover, Cool is yet
another surprisingly palatable cut from her ludicrously named, sugar
rush of an album, Love Angel Music Baby.
* THE DANDY WARHOLS Smoke It (Parlophone) The Dandy Warhols may be
poised to enjoy a second wind thanks to Dig!, the film about their
arch rivalry with the Brian Jonestown Massacre, next to whom they
resemble Cliff Richard and the Shadows. Here they salvage their own
hard-earned reputation for narcotic excess with a thrilling,
hyperventilating shambles of an Iggy-meets-the-Stones number that
doggedly pursues its misguided train of thought to oblivion and
beyond. Excellent.
* SYSTEM OF A DOWN Question (American Recordings) This ambitious
venture finds the Armenia-via-California thrash rockers striving to
answer the biggest existential questions of them all: what is the
meaning of life, and where do we go when we die? All is made clear as,
over alternately symphonic and thunderous shock-metal, they deliver a
remarkable verdict: “Sweet berries ready for two/Ghosts are no
different than you.” We’ve needed this for years: a Jean-Paul Sartre
you can mosh to.
* PRAS Haven’t Found (Universal) Next to the lustrous Lauryn Hill and
the ubiquitous Wyclef Jean, the relatively anonymous Pras Michel was
perennially doomed to be The Other One of the Fugees. Here, he
attempts to vault back into public affection by appropriating the
skyscraping guitar riff of U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking
For and mumbling over the top about how very ace he is. Diddy would
consider this record lazy and exploitative. Those are not words to use
lightly.