This month we just couldn’t agree on our soundtrack feature. So we split the argument down the middle. Ed Attlee is underwhelmed, while Daniel Dylan Wray is pleasantly surprised.
I struggle to aptly describe the songs written by Alex Turner for Richard Ayode’s ‘Submarine’. Substandard seems a little cruel, submerged a little obtuse, and subtle a little kind. Suffice to say I was underwhelmed. The songs are drip-fed background noise; elevator music for Pete Doherty wannabes. Of course, a soundtrack is not meant to outshine its visual complement but it is meant to enhance, enlighten and elaborate. This film would have to be very bad for that to be true. For the opening bars of the album I welcomed a tremor of piano, breath, and the squeaking of fingers on frets; I prepared myself to compare the tunes to Badly Drawn Boy’s soundtrack for About A Boy. Sadly the opening bars were the most interesting thing about the song. Listening to the album is rather like being submerged in a cosy coma, a sleepy dream of Jack Johnson, John Lennon and Paul McCartney (after the split). Or like eating a three day old sandwich. It was limp and hard in all the wrong places, curling at the edges, dusty. All this does not mean to say that Stuck On The Puzzle (the only song on the album with a beat) won’t be a constant presence on the radio for the next three months. Don’t say you haven’t been warned! It will be as permeating as Mumford and Sons or Justin Beiber - and is not dissimilar to either. It is both sweet and endearing, tender and twangy, and on the fiftieth listen it will make you want to tear your hair out. Sorry Alex, don’t quit your day job. EA
Living in Sheffield, it’s been difficult to avoid the Arctic Monkeys - their presence is everywhere and their copycats still fill the bars and venues on Saturday nights, citywide. I have, however, managed to keep away from their music, always feeling alienated rather than enticed by their gritty northern tales and swaggering power chords. So, it’s when approaching this EP that I get a Taser to the back of the neck. The reason these songs work is that they have developed musically beyond what Alex Turner has been capable of before. The personality now lies in the songs rather than the accent and delivery, the latter being neither difficult nor interesting. He has transcended his previous being in many ways, forging a sound that is not only new, but invigorating. There is a quaint and fragile croon that he delivers here that five years ago would never have seemed possible, so more than anything this is a display in progression, development and variation. Stuck On A Puzzle sees an eerie organ running through it, almost acting as a male counter-part to Beach House’s Silver Soul, and for the first time it feels like Turner is creating textures and atmospheres instead of just songs. The piano keys and the Owen Pallett arranged strings merge harmoniously throughout, and the end product is something more akin to Scott Walker than Oasis - an embodiment of maturity. While certain aspects outshine others, the EP is largely a success, and it opens up a whole street of potential avenues for Alex Turner to walk down. Whether they will be or not is almost irrelevant, as his decision to branch out from the comforts of his day job is admirable. DDW