LIAM FROST & THE SLOWDOWN FAMILY – The City Is At Standstill (CD & 2x 7″ Singles)

Lavolta LAVOLTA006 / LAVOLTA006Y / LAVOLTA006X: 28th August 2006
1. The City Is At Standstill
“Drink up, forget all about, the loss that a lifetime brought our way, to the end of violence, and our fictitious war, for every crooked politician, there’s a thousand more”
2. At First It Felt Like Darkness
“Now we stumble through the city streets, hearts dancing to a skipping beat”
3. The City Is At Standstill (Acoustic)
“How you shivered, as the wind shook through the alleyways, and boxcars, so let’s dance, away like spectres, drifting into the dark”
4. Angeles (XFM Session)
“Someone’s always coming around here, trailin’ some new kill, I said I seen your picture on a, hundred dollar bill”
5. Naïve
“I know that she knows, I’m not fond of asking, oh true or false it maybe, well she’s still out to get me”

‘The City Is At Standstill’ is the kind of big anthemic song that you feel Badly Drawn Boy has been trying to make. It’s got a touch of Arcade Fire as well with its crashing Pianos, titanic Drums, windmill Guitars and joyous handclaps. It doesn’t quite match the dizzy heights of his untouchable last single ‘The Mourners Of St Paul’s’, but it does come surprisingly close. An Acoustic version is included, but this song really needs to be heard with the big production.

‘At First It Felt Like Darkness’ is an acoustic song with an almost uncomfortably emotional vocal performance. It shares allot of the same lyrical imagery as the A-side, which I assume is intentional. ‘Angeles’ is an acoustic cover of an Elliott Smith song that he wrote almost ten years ago now. You can now add Liam Frost to the growing list of artists who’ve covered ‘Naïve’ by The Kooks. Personally, I’ve never been able to see the song’s attraction but Liam Frost’s version certainly does its best to convince me.

Click here to pre-order Liam’s album for the super-cheap price of £7.99 from HMV.

Here are links to watch the videos for ‘The City Is At Standstill’ and ‘The Mourners Of St Paul’s’ on YouTube.

If you look on Ebay you can get a cute little 3″ tour CD.

Lastly, click here to download seven Liam Frost demos.

Liam Frost Website / Liam Frost MySpace Page / Liam Frost Fansite

CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG – The Songs That We Sing (7″ Single)

Atlantic ATUK038: 28th August 2006
1. The Songs That We Sing
“I saw a photograph, a woman in a bath, of hundred dollar bills, if the cold doesn’t kill her, money will”
2. Jamais
“You think you know me, that’s your trouble, never fall in love with a body double, jamais”

This new 7″ from Charlotte Gainsbourg (Daughter of Serge Gainsbourg) isn’t lacking in the star-studded collaboration stakes.  The music on both tracks is written and performed by the boys from Air, the lyrics are by Jarvis Cocker and if that’s not enough Neil Hannon has helped Jarvis out with the words on the first track.  So the only thing that could let this down is Charlotte’s voice… but thankfully it’s every bit as good as you would expect from the daughter of Serge.

On ‘The Songs That We Sing’ the swirling strings, Piano and heavy use of the Xylophone make a sound very close to Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, which is no bad thing.  ‘Jamais’ is the pick of the two with it’s understated and slow burning groove (‘Jamais’ is the French for ‘Never’).  It’s so close to a Pulp song that despite Charlotte’s excellent vocals it’s hard not to wonder what it would sound like with Jarvis’ voice.  If the other songs on Charlotte’s new ‘5.55’ album are as good as these two it will be well worth getting a copy.

Click here to download Charlotte’s infamous duet with her father called ‘Lemon Incest’.  Also click here to watch the yet more notorious video on YouTube.

Click here to buy ‘5.55’ from HMV for only £8.99.

Click here to download Jarvis’ English-language cover of the Serge Gainsbourg song ‘I Just Came To Tell You That I’m Going’.  Click here to watch a special live performance of the track on YouTube.

Charlotte Gainsbourg Website / Charlotte Gainsbourg MySpace Page