Archive for March, 2008
Going the distance
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
You can tell a lot about a person by their smile. Take a look at JOSH RITTER, part-time marathon enthusiast, full-time singing hero. You just know he’d be the kind of guy you wouldn’t mind being sat next to on a long-haul flight.
With five albums to his name, the career of this affable Idaho man also makes a great case for the payoff that comes from giving an artist the time they need to develop properly.
It’s like making the perfect bowl of homemade soup – it requires experimentation, trial and error and adding the ingredients that complement each other best. So where you might spice things up with a bit of cumin and dill, Ritter takes a pinch of Cohen and Dylan to ensure his musical palette is a joy to the senses.
The 31-year-old’s last two albums in particular, The Animal Years and The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter, have deservedly lifted his popularity to new heights thanks to some finely crafted melodies, rich production and astute lyrics. And if you have the good fortune of seeing him live, you will surely be left with a warm glow inside.
4 Josh Ritter – Girl In The War
4 Josh Ritter – To The Dogs Or Whoever
b April 3, Liquid Room, Edinburgh (tickets)
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Mix and match
Friday, March 28th, 2008
We’d never heard of NATTY but folk who work on the Londoner’s behalf (he’s signed to a major label) have been emailing The Pop Cop about him and describing his mellow sound as “suitable for a Sunday afternoon”.
To be honest, that’s pretty much where we stopped reading since PR babble rarely makes our cynical hearts skip a beat. It was only when we discovered this dreadlocked new kid on the block was taking his reggae-influenced oeuvre to the windowless basement of Glasgow’s indier-than-thou Nice ‘n’ Sleazy that we found ourselves strangely drawn to scratch beneath the soundbites.
And what we found came as a most pleasant surprise. Rather than being some Bob Marley wannabe, Natty has clearly been listening to the odd bit of folk music.
All the signs seem to suggest Atlantic Records are prepping Natty to infiltrate the alternative scene. His song If I… appeared on a recent NME compilation and he has supported Kate Nash, Hard-Fi and Adele. If our theory is correct, then getting Natty on stage with Mystery Jets at last month’s iTunes Festival to cover a Vampire Weekend number was a marriage made in indie crossover heaven. Let’s just pray some clueless music magazine doesn’t brand him “new reggae”.
4 Natty – If I…
4 Natty and Mystery Jets – One (Blake’s Got A New Face) [Vampire Weekend cover]
b April 1, Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Glasgow (tickets)
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Special delivery
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
Hello. So far we’ve managed to be strict on our pledge to only write about acts who are from or coming to Scotland – and that’s why we wondered how we could get away with writing about JAMES CHADWICK since he ticks neither box.
Then we remembered that in our second ever post on The Pop Cop, while explaining our mission statement a la Jerry Maguire, we wrote: “If we also just happen to stumble across the best song ever that everybody HAS to hear then trust us, we’ll find a tenuous Tartan link somewhere, so fear not.”
With this in mind, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that Chadwick – a singing, songwriting young man from the Lincolnshire/Cambridgeshire border – contributed to Worried Noodles, a concept compilation album in which all the lyrics were written by Glaswegian artist and Guardian cartoonist David Shrigley. The end result was a track called The Wooden Floor.
Good though it is, it is utterly overshadowed by Chadwick’s own beguiling slice of acoustic perfection, The Last One, a song which has brightened our lives immeasurably and is quite simply the reason we are so excited to bring this post to you today.
Hopefully, we had you at “hello”.
4 James Chadwick – The Last One
4 James Chadwick – The Wooden Floor
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