new black - new black
‘hello?’ asks new black’s singer patti gran, winsomely, at the beginning of their debut album as if she’s unsure of whether anyone is going to hear it or not. but on the strength of the songs that sound like a coach containing all of the yeah, yeah, yeahs, the b52s and the only ones careering straight across the central reservation of a motorway and into oncoming traffic, we can only hope as many people get exposed to it as possible. one of several stand out tracks, ‘beatrice’ has as much art school ‘tude as you could wish for, like a female fronted franz ferdinand with squelchy new wave bass and detached vocals. admittedly greg norman’s mysterious production technique of actually crumpling the magnetic tape that the music was stored on make this a frustratingly muffled and lo fi affair at times and otherwise great tracks like ‘twisted lips’ just sound muddy. but generally this is retro pop at its finest; the new wave of old new wave, perhaps. the satirical magazine private eye has a regular column called ‘the neophilliacs’ which gently mocks journalists who describe things as the new black. despite this i hope i’m the first to describe the band new black as the new black.
(reviewed by john doran)