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Album Review
by SashaS
23-2-2005
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| The Futureheads: Kate Bush on speed! |
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The Futureheads: 'Hounds Of Love'
(679 Recordings)
The Futureheads: single of the year? Bet now!
There are a lot of artists out there who hope to emulate Franz Ferdinand’s success of last year, from Kaiser Chiefs to Razorlight to KT Tunstall… Who will succeed may be easy for clairvoyants but that ain’t our bag; what is certain is that The Futureheads are the top contenders. With their version of Kate Bush’s ‘Hounds of Love’ single release - it looks like it could start happening… next week!
Shifting its gear up to the one that wasn’t even available in her last active days - ma Bush hasn’t been around since 1994 [when in July she partnered Larry Addler on ‘The Man I Love’ for the ‘Glory Of Gershwin’ tribute album] - the sixth. But, the Sunderland’s noiseniks haven’t gone all the way pedal-to-the-metal and left enough room for song to still shine through.
It is still a defiantly edgy version of Ms Bush’s classic and ain’t like much you’ve heard of in a fair while. The band is also aware that Xerox-ing can go defective and thus never be actually as good as the original, unless you rework it. ‘Hounds of Love’ sounds just like a song should at this snow-capped days - fast, bruising, warming… [There is a story that the band’s style developed because they rehearsed in a garage that was “the coldest place on earth”. Nope, it wasn‘t located anywhere near the Polar circle but their hometown!]
This is a product of a generation that appears to be waking up to musical autonomy and is not made for people who create the same picture across the UK urban-scape every weekend, that of a nation getting into feverish shift-living! The Futureheads bring oddball ness to the stagnant scene with a sound that was [admittedly] influenced by Devo, Queen, Fugazi, plus assorted psychedelics, weirdoes, experimentalists and generally ‘sick-of-pop-crap’ artisans.
One has to congratulate Barry Hyde (vox/guitar) and his fellow members for another warp in the art-rock armour. This could also be a timely take because, according to the rumour mill, Kate Bush is readying to resume her career.
Let’s hope The Futureheads’ ‘Hounds Of Love’ prevents another Elvis Presley re-release from reaching the top of the pops!
9/10
SashaS
23-2-2005
The Futureheads’ single ‘Hounds of Love’ is available 21 February 2005 on 679 Recordings/Warners
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