The Indelicates - American Demo
1 Comments Published by Nat Lady on Sunday, April 13, 2008 at 19:02.
The Indelicates - American DemoReleased April 14th: Weekender Records
I've had a soft spot for Julia Clark-Lowes ever since she shrugged off her slinky polka dot dress and ran away with performance poet Simon Clayton (whom she met at a 'poetry slam') to form The Indelicates. The svengali behind The Pipettes, she is everything you could want in a pop punk girl - ferociously witty with an ear for a melody and more sass than you can shake a stick at.
Aside from Julia's unmistakable voice, American Demo journeys a million miles away from the polka dot world of twee handclaps and arch lyrics, and into a full-on early 90s' indie revival, albeit one with lyrics full of bile and bitterness. "Let's just be pretty, let's just be beautiful, let's just be retro and disco and twee, we don't like the song so we can't sing along and our daughters will never be free", spits Julia on feminist refrain "Our Daughters Will Never Be Free". Hmmmm. Maybe I'm just too much of a sunny disposition, but personally I prefer The Indelicates when they're upbeat; the record is drowned in melancholy but seems at its strongest (and least pretentious) when it surfaces for air with dance-along hits like "Julia, We Don't Live In The 60s".
American Demo is an enigma. On one hand, it revels in unbridled joy in pop and casio keyboard lines and, on the other, old-fashioned, high-drama duets which belie their production credits (Art Brut and Carter USM). It is essentially a one-band, brutal attack on the current indie scene and a record which demands more than a cursory airing. I'm off to have another listen, and you might want to listen to some songs too - let the Indelicates debate begin!
really? and all of that distressingly wanky guitar? is it ironic?