{"id":6380,"date":"2014-09-30T05:30:20","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T09:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=6380"},"modified":"2014-09-30T05:30:20","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T09:30:20","slug":"honeymoon-hundred-word-reviews-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/30\/honeymoon-hundred-word-reviews-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Honeymoon Hundred-word Reviews, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m on my honeymoon this week, so I thought it would be a good time to offer up some backlog-clearing entries in my occasional series of Hundred Word Reviews. And though the musical styles are all over the map, there’s a theme of sorts this time: each of the acts reviewed has been covered previously, either via review or feature\/interview.<\/p>\n

Today’s three feature new music from British and\/or part-Australian acts.<\/p>\n

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\nThe Britannicas \u2013 <\/strong>High Tea<\/strong><\/em>
\nIt’s thanks to the wonders of modern technology that an act such as the Britannicas could even exist: the members are scattered across the globe (USA, Sweden, Australia). But the infectious, highly melodic result of their internet-based collaboration belies that fact. Creamy vocal harmonies, beefy bass lines and chiming electric guitars are the order of the day. The music is richly textured, not unlike a slightly more jangly (and occasionally, slightly less rocking) Smithereens<\/strong><\/a>. For people who believe that the best kind of music came out of A Hard Days’ Night<\/em>, The Britannicas’ High Tea<\/em> will be manna from heaven.<\/p>\n

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\nThe Penguin Party \u2013 <\/strong>Mesherlek<\/strong><\/em>
\nDon’t let the endlessly inventive packaging distract you from the fact that Mesherlek<\/em> is simply wonderful. Equal parts snotty and uncompromising pub rocker (think: Graham Parker<\/strong><\/a>, early Elvis Costello<\/strong> or Nick Lowe<\/strong>) and wry commenter on lives writ small (think: Fountains of Wayne<\/strong><\/a> or Ray Davies<\/strong>), Dave Milligan<\/strong> has a seemingly bottomless well of wry\/hilarious story songs wedded to killer riffage. Topping Sex Furniture Warehouse<\/em><\/a> would seem an unachievable feat; with this album, Milligan and his mates have pulled it off. From the jaunty ska of \u201cDo You Know Who I Am? to \u201cToken Tree Hugging Ecological Song,\u201d it’s essential.<\/p>\n

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\nCleaners from Venus \u2013 <\/strong>Return to Bohemia<\/strong><\/em>
\nMartin Newell<\/strong><\/a>‘s witty observations are always wrapped in lovely melodies. His latest one-man effort is no exception. \u201cCling to Me\u201d sounds like the demo of a hit tune (and is a bit reminiscent of Robyn Hitchcock<\/strong><\/a>‘s \u201cElement of Light\u201d), and the rest of the album is just as swell. Newell won’t likely win scores of new converts with this low-key affair, but those who’ve been hipped to the wonderment of his work will surely find plenty to treasure here. He has a huge catalog, but Return to Bohemia<\/em> is as good a place as any for the initiated to start.<\/p>\n

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\nwhen new features, reviews and essays are published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m on my honeymoon this week, so I thought it would be a good time to offer up some backlog-clearing entries in my occasional series of Hundred Word Reviews. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,55,65],"tags":[418,555,627,1417,1675],"class_list":["post-6380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-powerpop","category-review","tag-britannicas","tag-cleaners-from-venus","tag-dave-milligan","tag-martin-newell","tag-penguin-party","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-55-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}