Pagina's

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

ALBUMREVIEWS : WHITE TOWN - DON'T MENTION THE WAR


In my childhood I had a silly game with some consequences. I used to run over the playground and show my mates in crime who was on top of my charts and I noticed one thing : my hits were never the hits that were on the charts.
It's not because I see music as art as this is the kind of definition that gives me the creeps.
It's also not because I'm a so called indiekid because I'm listening to indiepop. First of all I hate the term and secondly it's really more than disgusting to call a 41-year old man an indiekid.
It's also not because I wanna be different because it'd be my dream if my fave bands (and thus fave songs) would score worldwide hits. It's just that I blame the DJ's for not playing the right songs, and then I'm talking about the DJ's the world listen to. Those DJ's who annoy you in the early morning with their crap R'n'B and who wanna be a star themselves instead of playing the right tunes.
Cos admit it, play songs by dreampopacts like Girlfrendo, They Go Boom! or a million other Orlando's and they score worldwide hits.
It happened some years ago with White Town. One of the so-called bedroompopartists scored a monsterhit with "Your woman". Somewhere it's fantastic, somewhere it's sad that it only happened once cos I think the world could swallow some more number 1 hits by White Town ("Undressed" for instance).
Some say he's a one-hit wonder, other say (I read this on a website!) that he's making electro/indiepop for geeks and freaks, and that must be the most horrible description ever.
Whatever name you stick on Jyoti's music you always will come to the term "pop" and that's not different with his latest album "Don't mention the war".
If you're at the recordshop (if you still can find one) and you read titles like "I was a Trotsky's nun" or "The straight-edge atheists' hymn" you don't have to freak out as it's all by all easy pop (with lyrics that are not easy but honestly said I'm not that much of lyricreader anyway). Plus White Town was recently part of the Popfest in London, so I'm sure he won't kill me for naming him a popartist.
Even if the opener "Make the world go away" may sound a bit bombastic (well, bombastic in White Town's terms) the rest are lovely tunes you can sing along when standing in the queue at your local shop (I know you don't wanna do that!) and a track like "Whenever I say hello" makes you secretly wish for the "Your Woman"-sequel.
Personally I don't think it will happen that soon (and as stated by Jyoti himself, a track like "Your woman" could never be a hit in 2010) but it's the hope that keeps us alive.
The cd is released on Bzangy Records and you better jump to their website for ordering details as you won't find this in your local recordstore.
For our new readers, please check out the White Town-interview I recently did with Jyoti. It's a great read simply as Jyoti is a man who has something to say.

No comments:

Post a Comment