nick cave & THE bad seeds, violet violet and more - singles for THE week beginning july 28!

DAN LE SAC VS SCROOBIUS PIP / LETTER FROM GOD TO MAN (SUNDAY BEST) Bit of a weird one, this: ‘Letter From God To Man’ is built around a Radiohead sample, and features lyrics which sound quite a lot like the kind of thing you sometimes get in annoying forwarded emails, particularly if you imagine them transcribed poorly and illustrated with arbitrary clip-art. There’s a good bit near the end when it goes slightly mental, but it’s all a bit “album track”, yeah? VIOLET VIOLET / SPICY NOODLE TREAURE (NR ONE) Violet Violet come commended by no less authority than Artrocker magazine, so I hope I won’t be excommunicated by the panel of achingly hip but slightly terrifying men and women who ruthlessly control this “brand” if I describe ‘Spicy Noodle Treasure’ is half-baked grrl punk. (Fantastic title, though). BROMHEAD’S JACKET / SNEAKERBOX (MARQUIS CHA CHA) An idiot who isn’t very good at describing music might describe ‘Speakerbox’ as “a bit like the Arctic Monkeys with a spooky synth noise added” (at least that’s what I’ve written in my notes, which is a pretty good indication). It doesn’t really go anywhere, although it gets bonus points for lasting a minute and a half, meaning I can finish reviewing the singles slightly quicker than usual. PIGEON DETECTIVES / EVERYBODY WANTS ME (DANCE TO THE RADIO) For whatever reason, Pigeon Detectives seem to be regarded as the epitome of what everybody’s suddenly calling “landfill indie”, and they’re unlikely to do themselves any favours by releasing ‘Everybody Wants Me’: it’s a tedious, forgettable dirge. THE RAID / ON A SCALE (N/A) Christ on a bike, it gets worse. The Raid have evidently entered into some kind of nefarious endorsement deal with a well-known brand of sweatshop-produced training shoe, and have a look and a sound that could charitably be described as “northern”. ‘On A Scale’ is the worst single of the week, and might just be the worst single of all time.