The Singles Jukebox

Are you read-eh for love…

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[7.00]

Hillary Brown: Yay, it’s the end of the movie, and the fuzzy crowd at the dance is slowly parting as we move in slow-mo to see the two kids meant to be together approaching one another. Heart-warming, and unfortunately already featured in a Taylor Swift video. Still, it fits about as well with this twinkly, shimmery, satiny song.
[7]

Michaelangelo Matos: It’s weird to think that these guys are by now a small institution, the kind of band that seems capable of putting out an album every other year in perpetuity, selling out mid-sized drinkeries-with-stage into comfortable middle age. I never cared myself until a couple years ago, when a friend’s enthusiasm pushed me to try Lust Lust Lust and learn to enjoy them as sunny kitsch dressed arty and not-quite-goth. This isn’t anywhere near that good, which probably indicates they’ve peaked.
[6]

Anthony Easton: The problem with the dance metaphors is that they occasionally turn into something harder, more emotionally reticent. Is the last dance here about death, or heartbreak, or some kind of Euro-Don McLean meta commentary on the music, or all of the above? What exactly are we saving, and are we mostly saving it from ourselves? Sharin Foo’s whispers here are infused with an ambiguity that refuses to answer those questions, much to her credit.
[9]

Spencer Ackerman: A perfect example of a band exceeding its limits, which in this case are schlocky Brill-Building throwbackism. “Last Dance” continues Lust Lust Lust’s obsession with morbidity (“Every time you overdose/I rush to intensive care”) through achingly pretty and unashamedly huge pop hooks. Phil Spector producing JAMC from his jail cell.
[9]

Matt Cibula: Over on Cave17.com we hella loved Lust Lust Lust but that was because of their rediscovered hard edges; this is too pillowy and wall-of-sound-ish for me to love. But tension and beauty are in short supply, especially together, so I expect I’ll come around.
[6]

Peter Parrish: If Lust Lust Lust was their Psychocandy then I guess In And Out Of Control will be Darklands. Which is fine by me; I love Darklands. Anyway, that makes this track … err, “April Skies,” I suppose. Certainly the portrayal of an utterly broken and destructive relationship gift-wrapped in cosy pop paper remains the same. Some lovely falsetto coo-ing in the chorus and blimey, is that a stylophone I hear being played in a non-infuriating way just before the coda? I do believe it could be.
[8]

Pete Baran: I’ve always liked what the Ravonettes do, whilst always wishing that there was a band like them that took the RAVE bit of their name more seriously. The sweetest record I can think of that mentions intensive care, it’ll get many a happy repeat play from me, whilst I wonder about a version with a more banging backing.
[6]

Alfred Soto: I didn’t expect this to sound like one of Stephen Merritt’s side projects. Wispy and crunchy in equal measures, it saves its truest pleasures for the choral harmonies.
[6]

Martin Skidmore: This is an odd mix of Phil Spector and the Velvet Underground: most of the music is the latter (think ‘Sunday Morning’ in particular) apart from end-of-the-pier organ, but the song is the former, and there are woo-hoo backing vocals. I’m not sure it’s a winning combination, but I find it likeable enough.
[6]