Easy Music for Difficult Ears

I heard about a month or two ago (my memory is dying a death) that various muso’s were recording a Ronnie Drew tribute song. My initial reaction was “I didn’t know he was dead” and my second reaction (upon reading the full story) was “uh-huh… interesting”.
For those of you who don’t know Ronnie Drew was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2006 and is currently undergoing continuous treatment to rid himself of the disease. The former-Dubliner was originally meant to be making a guest appearance on the recording, but unfortunately ailing health prevented this from taking place.

However Drew gave his approval for the project that features members of U2, Kila and other bands with solo-star turns from Andrea Corr, Shane MacGowan (why, oh fucking why???), Paul Brady, Mick Pyro and many others. All very talented people, but there’s one problem… it’s a mess.
I’ve already stated on State.ie (note to Nialler9 – I got the name right this time) that the song reminds me of the Simpson’s episode during which Bart falls down a well (as Timmy O’Toole) and a bunch of celebrity’s get together to record a song of hope and love – it really has that ramshackle feel. There are simply too many people trying to do too many things and as a result the song ends up getting caught up in a wire-mesh of sound.

However at Ronnie Drew’s request, the money raised from the single is going to cancer research at the Irish Cancer Society and I’m sure it’ll be bought in large numbers (who the fuck would want to download it??). It’s available for download from tomorrow and the CD single is out Friday week. Anyway, should folk want to preview it, the song’s video is below – just wait for the chorus to come…

I also came across the Foals album today and shock horror, it’s lost on me. I’ve heard some previous demo’s and they’re not a bad band, but something about this album doesn’t… quite… click…. into place. It feels like tin can music – in other words…

1. you pop open a can
2. empty contents into bowl
3. put in microwave
4. turn on
5. ping!!
6. it’s ready

Apart from that, it just grates very quickly. I had the same problem with CSS (and countless other bands in the last few years) where it’s great for a few listens but becomes boring very quickly (and I’m not going to rant about the Loudness Wars here yet, but it will be written when the research is completed). It’s a shame that an act of such potential have ended up producing a product that has an overriding sense of style over substance.
Anyway I will bollock on about that at a later date, but In the meantime I’m just going to grab some sleep.

Current Listening:
The B52’s “Time Capsule: Songs for a Future Generation”

Sweetos,
Leigh