MURDERER – I DID IT ALL FOR YOU (LP)
So this week’s ‘single’ of the week is an album (because I can do what I want and fuck you!). I’ve only listened to this LP the whole way through twice so I won’t be able to give a very good or exhaustive description of the entire album, but I felt like I had to mention it this week because I can’t stop thinking about the way it sounds.
You can pick up straight away that its tones are quite weird and deranged but the album doesn’t sound too sharp or abrasive to me; it’s definitely easy-listening but more in a way that’s intriguing to the ear, like something disgusting in a horror movie you can’t help but stare at. Its cohesiveness partly lends itself to the very consistent and precise punk drumming, and also to the simplicity and repetitiveness of the chord changes in tracks like Juicy Fruit Dream – as with most punk, it’s not what is done that is so enthralling and interesting but how it’s done. And Murderer show in this LP that they can sort of appeal and repulse the senses at the exact same time.
Songs like I Did It All For You and Piece of Candy sounds (and feel) just like a nightmare I would have as a kid, and I know it sounds a bit niche but if I’m more specific, they remind me of the unending black sky over a motorway with barely anyone on it. The distortion, vocals and the constant metal bin lid snare is all obviously a bit creepy, but it’s the snatches of cleaner notes in tracks like You and Me which is what gives Murderer’s sound such a disjointed and disturbing edge.
There’s loads more to say about the tinkly music-box intermissions tracks (four of them called Perfect), the mixtures and contrasts of pace and the workings-in of strangely deadpan psychobilly, but I want to end off on saying that this LP is impossible to stop listening to. From beginning to end this album is ace and I cannot recommend you listen to it enough.
THE SPITS – SUZY'S FACE
Suzy’s Face is the sort of track that makes me reminisce on the joyous, cloudless adolescence I don’t even think I had. Were your teenage years spent in skate parks under big blue skies, or were they spent more like mine – rolling shit fags in the rain and drinking so much Frosty Jacks cider on the bus that you had stomach cramps the entire next day? Doesn’t really matter: the pep, spring and harmony The Spits deliver (don’t worry: endearingly, their tracks still sound like they were all recorded in a dirty broom cupboard) knocks the years off you. You don’t need to worry about things like being too old to wear skinny jeans, or at what age smoking isn’t cool anymore, because the dumb, Joey Ramone singing and brilliant sameness of Suzy’s Face makes you feel time isn’t moving. The Ramones are back and better than ever, it’s always summer, and you’re NOT too old to throw up and pass out in pub toilets, to then get kicked out by the barmaid.
THE SPITS – BRING
The discovery of The Spits has been bitter-sweet for me. Sweet because I think they’re the best band I’ve ever heard in my entire life, but bitter because my plan for a prosperous future – where I start a new brilliant band that sounds just like The Ramones but faster and full of harmonies – has been foiled.
Unfortunately for no one except me, The Spits have absolutely nailed the quick, bright tunefulness and sour aggression of The Ramones… about 20 years ago. Bring is just as buoyant and catchy – but muddied down with moody harmonies, more distortion and pretty noxious lyrics (mention of glue-sniffing a homage to Joey, I hope).
I think Bring still stands out to me amongst the rest of their ace tracks just because of how annoyingly simple it is, how every chord change is just as gripping and new as it was the first time you heard it, and how it incessantly follows you around through the day. I (don’t) apologise to everyone who lives anywhere near me, because I’m on Day 19 of blasting out Bring as soon as I wake up.