The Beat Surrender

In my years of listening to music, one thing has become apparant with singers…ok more than one thing obviously, but one thing I want to talk about here….namely, that some people can change their vocal style and the music that accompanies it and you have an entirely different proposition on your hands…and some can’t.

That isn’t to say that it’s a bad thing, Jarvis Cocker sounds like Jarvis Cocker from Pulp no matter what the project he is working on, as do a few other singers, one of whom is one of my favourites Eddie Argos.

Known for his caustic and funny delivery as the frontman in Art Brut, he’s embarked on a side project with Dyan Valdes from The Blood Arm that is going under the title Everybody Was In The French Resistance…Now! and while musically you do get subtle differences from his day job, it would be easy to erase memory of the side project and imaghine this as the 4th Art Brut album.

I say that because ultimately his delivery style is exactly the same, the pace is the same, his phrasing and the lyrical style…yes all the same. The difference comes from the fact that the guitars are toned down, with keyboard replacing as the weapon of choie (and done very nicely may I add) and backing vocals courtesy of his new female associate.

It does have a concept around the album, with all the tracks being responses to famous songs from people as wide ranging as Avril Lavigne and Kanye West to Martha Reeves, Gerry And The Pacemakers and Elastica all with varying degrees of success!

Art Brut fans will love it, for anyone else it will either open them up to the charms of AB or have them running for the hills, you probably already know which camp you sit in though don’t you?

Fixin’ The Charts Volume One is out now through Cooking Vinyl.