The Wooden Finger Five – March 2015

5.California Nights – Best Coast

‘I stay high all the time/Just to get by/I climb into the sky/And my eyes, they cry’

‘I never wanna get so high/That I can’t come back down to real life’

‘Fading back and forth/I fly through my mind’

Yes, there is no doubt in my mind that if this was the mid-‘60s, this song would be banned from radio. (It’s almost a tribute to all those hazy, potentially drug-referencing tracks that did get banned.)

4.In The Heat Of The Moment – Noel Gallagher

Noel Gallagher has never been one to think too much about his words. On his recent appearance on ‘The Graham Norton Show’ he admitted that he came up with the title for his new album because the record company needed a title in an hour, and he just had a quick look through his lyric sheet. Nevertheless I still felt a sense of déjà vu when I heard the lyrics of ‘In The Heat Of The Moment’. ‘They tell me you’ve touched the face of God’? ‘I talk to him on the telephone’. Hmm, that phone lyric is pretty close to that ‘I’m tired of talking of my phone’ line from Oasis’ ‘Stand By Me’. And how many songs has Noel mentioned God in? ‘Little By Little’, ‘If I Had A Gun’, ‘D’You Know What I Mean?’ … Still this is not a bad track from Noel’s perfectly serviceable new album.

3.The Ground Walks, With Time In A Box – Modest Mouse

Modest Mouse return with a beat. This means that for once Modest Mouse and Isaac Brock don’t sound like they are going to dig a hole and bury themselves or whatever limp body is handy. It’s not their standard style but it works pretty well. Other tracks that have been released from their forthcoming album – due out this month – ‘Lampshades On Fire’ and ‘Coyotes’ sound pretty good too.

2.Go Out – Blur

Happily this sounds like Blur. It also possibly sounds like Damon Albarn in Gorillaz using the ‘Graham Coxon guitar post-The Great Escape’ app on his iPad. Regardless, it’s great to have them back.

1.What Kind Of Man – Florence And The Machine

On her last album ‘Ceremonials’ Florence Welsh pushed her lungs and her music about as far as they could go on almost every track. If ‘What Kind Of Man’ is any indication then dialing the sound down on her next album is not on the agenda. That may wear thin at some point but this is one of her better tracks. She could have dialed down the angst a touch in the video clip though.