Look, there's only so much a poor, overworked reviewer can take, right? I mean, I've already been subjected to a band featuring names like Fathead, Johnny Taint and Peter Extravaganza today (all from Philadelphia power poppers The Donuts) and now I'm supposed to countenance a geezer leading a rampant Prog act who calls himself Peter J. Croissant?? Come on - in the name of Cuisine de France and their all-encompassing, bastard franchise: am I really supposed to swallow that?
Apparently so, for the patisserie-monikered one is the songwriting brains behind Southampton's SINE STAR PROJECT and their new single 'Bleeding Like A Dog' is the trailer release (can download-only singles be referred to as 'tasters' these days, I wonder?) from their second album 'Building Humans', due in March 2008. Having been completely unaware of their debut, I was further aggrieved to discover that said item 'Blue Born Earth Boy' came out on One Little Indian who normally furnish me with all their releases. Oi, press office, get yer fingers out: there are journalists starving out here, y'know.
There again, on the basis of this one, it's hard to say whether I'd really want said debut album on my creaking shelves. Because the elegantly-titled 'Bleeding Like A Dog' really is bloody odd. Oh yes. Coming on all melodramatic with hammered piano, falsetto-reaching vocals and wafting the eau de junior Muse all over the friggin' shop, it's considerably Prog-gier than anything this reviewer would normally let escape out the back without a damn good thrashing. But, just as he's about to swing a very big lump hammer, that stupidly-catchy, post-apocalptic XTC of a "la la la"-ed up chorus comes in and just about wins him over. Un-huh?
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They then proceed to effectively weird me out for a second time with their preposterously sombre, neo-classical cover of Bjork's 'Army Of Me' which I'm reliably told features four grand pianos! Despite that, it's still weirder than the lumpen electro-madness of the original and that had a sodding gorilla dentist in the video, for fuck's sake! And these guys live in Southampton, you say? Christ, there are some freaking good drugs coming into the Solent these days, it seems.
Against very long odds, then, this is actually a good single. Consider me buttered up for now, Mr. Croissant, but we'll see about that album when the time comes. Oh yes indeed.
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