Only Built 4 Indie-Rock Linx

The Rakes, "All Too Human" - You might think that I'd a song as undeniably inconsequential as the new single by the Rakes as an excuse to take it easy, but the running playcount in my iTunes is telling a different story - it's telling me that I need to write about this rather exceptional slice of guitar pop right now. I realize, of course, that we've all been far too sophisticated for the Rakes for a billion years and that of course I would never be so bold as to suggest that 2005's Capture/Release ever quietly revealed itself to be anything like one of the best skinny-tie indie-rock albums to come out of this generation of seething British yoof, but there's kinda the matter of "All Too Human" being balls-out awesome in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with it being of-the-moment or not. The fact, of course, that it's of-the-moment as fuck is something of a bonus.

I'm pretty sure that most people's problems with the Rakes tend to come from the overpowering Seriousness their music tends to get across, mostly because it's such a capital-f Fault of their presentation that even my wide-eyed-and-willing fourteen-year-old-at-heart-assed self can't ignore it. Before the Arctic Monkeys came around, you see, the Rakes were being held up by the British indie rock press as the pretenders to the Clash's Throne Of Brutally Honest Social Realism, which is basically just a fancy way of describing songs about drinking which don't celebrate drinking. The kids, as usual, were all wrong; admittedly as an American I'm at something of a disadvantage when it comes to interpreting these things, but I have to believe that if the reality you represent only gets as gritty as "I've had the same shirt on/For five days in a row/With the soy sauce stain/So everyone knows", then your life practically borders on "charmed" compared to, say, Steve Earle's. But more to the point, I can't for the life of me figure out who would possibly give even a single fuck about whatever the Rakes were singing about in the face of the actual, y'know, songs, which I'll still defend as remarkably strong on the whole; after all, reality disappears as soon as you describe it, but "Retreat"'s white-hot hi-hats'll probably echo into eternity in the indie disco inside my skull.

I'm assuming that you're all sitting on the edge of your chairs waiting for me to take my cue and give all the credit for Capture/Release to A Certain Individual Who May Or May Not Have Been Mentioned On This Site Before. And believe me, up until I heard "All Too Human", you'd have been dead on the money; Kick or possibly the new Rapture album notwithstanding, I wouldn't think twice before calling Capture/Release my favorite Epworth-related full-length, Silent Alarm be damned. It's just that "All Too Human" (1) was produced by Elliot James, who I don't recognize, and (2) beats the dog-piss out of everything on their debut in terms of irresistable hooks - "All Too Human" throws off "stuff" that could make a lesser song worth listening to with a degree of reckless abandon not seen since Mike Jones stepped up to the mic for "Still Tippin'". The whole song is as glorious a gesture of going for broke as anything off Come And Get It; I doubt lead singer Alan Donohoe has more fun singing anything in their repetoire live than when he gets to launch into the chorus of "All Too Human", and let's not even get into the sheer volume of hooks going on here - it's like someone decided to save me the effort of ever actually listening to the second Franz Ferdinand album, because lord knows there can't be anything on that thing as wickedly compelling as the sniper-accurate drumming or that majestically squiggly little guitar line or, fuck, any of it. My arms would look like Swiss cheese if I could shoot this song up.

But really, "All Too Human" might well stand out as the best Rakes song simply because it's the Rakes song that has the absolute least to do with reality. Capture/Release may sound more artfully caged-in than any record to take aim at the general record-buying public in recent memory, but if you don't buy into the sincerity or adroitness of its subject matter, even I couldn't begrudge you for thinking it just sounds kinda affected; this is exactly why I own a grand total of one album by Weezer. But "All Too Human" sounds like it's swinging for the fences, and although I can't be forthright enough about my world-wrecking dumbassity at interpreting lyrics, it sure doesn't sound like it's about working a shitty job or smelling the vodka on someone's breath - it's about
someone having you right where they want you and questioning the possibility of seeing something through, whatever the hell that's referring to, and it's up to You The Newly-Empowered Listener to decide whether or not this is actually relevant music. Which is, of course, fucking awesome and all I could ever ask of a rock song.

I'm sure that there will be people out there who'll hear this and be absolutely mystified as to what the big deal is since it's "just" a guitar pop song, and a relatively-unadorned one by today's standards, mostly because that's the exact reaction I had to "Take Me Out", most assuredly a "better" song than "All Too Human". I absolutely don't even give the first fuck; when a band finally steps up to the plate and comes up with the song that cashes in all the checks signed by their preturnaturally assertive aesthetic, I could care less if it's "Outdoor Miner" for the yoof of today - fuck, it could be their "Islands In The Stream" and I'd be just as captive an audience as I am right now. "All Too Human" really is one of those tracks where if you don't like it, odds are pretty good that you can just go ahead and stop paying attention to the band behind it now. More room on the dancefloor for me, I guess. (Click here to buy the "All Too Human" single through the Rakes' webstore)

Howling Bells, "Wishing Stone" - And as long as my cup runneth over with zeitgeisty indie-rock, I figure I might as well pass along the most recent single by Australia's Howling Bells, what with it being one of the few songs to actually swim upstream against the torrential river of "All Too Human" running through my head and all. I haven't heard the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs record yet, but I'd be willing to make two wagers: one, that even in its most earthy and restrained moments, it's infinitely hipper than "Wishing Stone", which one could theoretically slip onto the soundtrack of any Cameron Crowe movie set in the present day without anyone batting an eye, and second, that it's going to take an "Atlases" to out-"Maps" "Wishing Stone". "Wishing Stone" isn't a song that would necessarily be any better if it were any more state-of-the-art; it works so well largely because it's so plaintative and straightforward about its itself, and gussying it up with disastrously fashionable obliquity would probably only distract you from an overpoweringly immacculate (and vice versa) chorus. Who gives a fuck if it sounds like 1995 all over again? It's not like I'm going to disavow Hum's "Stars" anytime soon or anything. (Click here to buy the "Wishing Stone" single from Rough Trade)

ELSEWHERE

- I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the majestic and world-conquering Badminton Stamps has had "All Too Human" up for about a month now, along with several tracks from the Lord's Own House Band themselves from which I'm forcibly denying myself and a buttload of Hot Chippitude to fuel the fire that "Over And Over" damn well better have started in yr pants. I would strongly urge you to download everything posted there until the end of time, yes I would.