CALVIN PARTY'S John Donaldson remains one of the great, under-appreciated singer/ songwriters haunting the British provinces. He kicked up an unholy racket of the first order with his previous band (the cruelly ignored Levellers 5) on the cusp of the 1990s, and has now been beavering away with the Calvins for over a decade.
Lesser talents would probably have slung their hooks by now, and at times CP'S scabrous rock'n'growl has even challenged the faithful. However, significant chinks of light played through the curtains with the release of 2008's fine 'Godard's Girlfriend' album and as the year winds down, Donaldson and co. make a timely return with their best single to date.
Said single boasts two hugely arresting tracks. '8 Days' is a brand new recording and showcases the might of the current, pop-inspired Calvin Party. Swinging like a particularly malevolent wrecking ball around Cathy Brooks' bulldozer bassline and Howard Jones' pounding drums, it comes on like the bastard son of The Sweet's Glam classic 'Blockbuster' and I Am Kloot's 'Life In A Day' and is brawny and energetic in all the best possible ways. It also clocks in at barely two minutes, so the “oh, I need to hear that again pronto” factor soon comes into play.
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Nominal flipside 'Just Keep Falling' is a snappy, Yves Altana-produced re-make of one of 'Godard's Girlfriend”s key tracks. Again, it's quirked-out pop at its' best, with a starry-eyed Donaldson proclaiming his love for “Ginger girls, Irish girls...Salford girls, Chorlton girls” and a whole lot more. It's lusty and tender in pretty much equal portions and has an absolute honey of a tune and a real life anthem of a chorus. The fact it appears as merely a 'second' track here demonstrates the confidence currently flowing through the Calvin Party camp.
It's all rounded off by three cracking additional tracks recorded live in Holland and the promise of a new album in the New Year. Against previously long odds, it looks as though 2009 could be the year when John Donaldson finally gets the recognition he deserves. That's a thought to warm the cockles over the festive season, isn't it?
(http://www.myspace.com/calvinparty)
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