September 26, 2013

NEW EP – The Lovely Wars

(by Rhys Mwyn)

This could be another short review. The Lovely Wars EP is quite simply brilliant. End of. But as I always have to remind myself when writing for Blogs, we can’t do short, we have a responsibility to string words together in a Paul Morley style and waffle on incoherently and spout pop theories.

So let’s go track by track and spout theories. ‘Let’s blow the whole thing up’ is a punky bass rumble which has everything in it from Darling Buds, Transvision Vamp, Daisy Chainsaw right through to the pure pop sensibilities of the Godess that is Deborah Harry. The backing vocal “ahhh’s” ! give it sweet while the rumble of the bass kick ass so hard yer ass don’t touch the ground.

The chorus has Ani Saunders seducing, her vocals are quite stunning, she can yelp and play with her voice but she’s like a punk rock John McEnroe, bang on the ball (as in musical notes) she really is a gem of a vocalist as yet totally undiscovered, to borrow a Sunday Times quote about the Pistols back in the day – “Unseen, unheard but on top”. Saunders will be on top soon enough.

This song hits from the first note. It’s an instant hit. End of. But it’s also a grower, in the sense with consecutive plays it actually gets better. Lovely Wars accomplish the impossible. Perfect pop.

‘Oh it’s a lovely war’ takes us downtown to a downtown “Kerdiff” discotheque. Saunders directs via a megaphone, the synth takes us on a 12 bar disco groove. The beat just forces anyone from sober to totally pissed to sway. With a bit of imagination this is something that you would have expected in the unfilmed and unscripted disco scenes in ‘Twin Town’ where the brothers Ifans give it some dancefloor action while Huw Ceredig does his thing. It’s that kind of track. Filmic. A call to arms to the tacky dancefloor of a Swansea night club with horrible 70’s lights and round disco balls.

We get a hint of the anthemic on ‘Through the darkness’ this is the Lovely Wars creating a better tune than ‘Little Baby Nothing’, remember beautiful lipstick traces Tracy Lords in bed with the Manics. Again why waste words when BRILLIANT will suffice. It is brilliant, totally brilliant and really does send shivers down in all sorts of directions. Not so much punky as synthy but actually the Manics could cover this and you would not notice.

Which brings us on to ‘Young Love’ which starts with something akin to Squeeze’s Cool for Cats, it’s that bassline, as Ani Saunders lead us on, and leads us towards a street corner where Blondie, Pet Shop Boys, Soft Cell and Dusty Springfield come at you from all directions, from different speakers in a true melting pot. It’s Doris Day for 2013 (and that’s a compliment). Simply put, if you are young enough to fall in love (again) or for the first time – then do it to this song.