jack penate

Just before Jen left for her trip out to Asia she told me to look after the blog. “Don’t just go posting loads of Jack Penate or something”. Oops. Well, it’s just too good not to. I know, I know, but keep reading.

This is now looking like the unlikeliest coming-good scenario of the last few years. Previously Penate was some horrendous blend of anachronistic East End barrow boy and Kate Nash’s high school sweetheart, dressed by a George at Asda focus group who’d watched last night’s Skins. Now he’s in videos that look like Helmut Newton doing mumblecore, and writing songs that are the best pop music of 2009. I already waxed lyrical about Tonight’s Today; new single “Be The One” matches it.

A driving beat and some twinkly sounds are all that’s needed to back up a fantastic verse vocal melody, that undulates along some rolling countryside before paragliding into an equally fantastic chorus. It goes even more heaven-wards with the soaring middle eight, which sees him in unexpectedly fine voice, before crashing and rolling down a hill in a jumble of broken trumpets. But hey, he’s alright, because here comes that chorus again.

Jack Penate – Be The One

Roll on the album!

jack penate / golden silvers / the horrors

Last year I lamented that I’d woken up one day and all my favourite bands were American (for the purposes of this post, I’m talking bands that get in, or in spitting distance of, the charts). The landfill indie triumverate of Scouting For Girls, The Hoosiers and The Wombats were stalking the airwaves, bringing back all the worst things about soft rock – pomposity, lack of hooks – and none of the good stuff – sax solos, thoroughly unironic earnestness. All I had was Hot Chip, Foals and the Rumble Strips.

But this year has already given us three modern English classics, and my faith is restored for the time being. First up it’s Jack Penate, whose hyperactive Topman skiffle has morphed into something amazing with “Tonight’s Today”. Great chanting chorus, effortless verses, and all of it beautifully produced by Paul Epworth to simultaneously make Penate’s voice pure and the rhythm guitars sound like they’ve fallen off the back of Konono No. 1’s wagon.

Jack Penate – Tonight’s Today

Then there’s ”True Romance” from Golden Silvers, which takes the underwater percussion sounds and white funk of Chaz Jankel and blends it with the London chat of Ian Dury to create a Blockheads for the 21st century. (Thanks to Pinglewood for getting to both of these way before I did).

Golden Silvers – True Romance (True No. 9 Blues)

And finally there’s the Horrors, who were in the unfortunate position of having a major label that was scared of them and fans who looked like they’d watched A Nightmare Before Christmas too many times, which was a shame because their industrial-Count-Five thing was actually pretty damn good. But this takes things up a notch – pensive motorik, with a vocal line with its head out the window, drives across a colour wheel before racing Delia Derbyshire’s disco bus to Frankie Knuckles’s house. Eat journo-wank, readers!

The Horrors – Sea Within A Sea

Now it’s just fingers crossed for the next Klaxons record…