A quiet week on the singles front...

Broadway Calls: Be all you can't be

Hear those cash tills ringing for this uber-commercial skate-punk power-pop which ticks all the classic Blink 182 boxes and comes approved by Green Day. Usually we'd affect the attitude that we are too cool for such obvious tactics but this track has warmed the cockles of the Music Fix as it eschews the usual puerile power punk subject matter (girls have boobies!) and targets an issue with a little more gravity. Broadway Calls, who've even covered Billy Bragg numbers in the past, have some political teeth and here they rail against the insidious US Military policy of press ganging the most hopeless schoolkids into being cannon fodder. All power to their arm. (SB)

Fightstar: Never Change

Well, this is all quite embarrassing. I literally had the knives out for this one, hell, I even paid a geezer on the doorstep to sharpen them like bayonets ready to gut old Charlie. But, as he worked, his single gold tooth glinting mesmerisingly in the afternoon sun the swarthy chap turned to me and asked Hey meester..why for you want theees knifes soo sharp heh?.

Why, to stick them into Fightstar of course I archly chuckled. You know nothing! he spat as he received my coins into his sweaty palm. Well, damn him if he wasn't right! Never Change rocks, it boasts a huge vocal, chunky bass, buzzsaw guitars and epic strings. Like the Manics meets Funeral for a Friend it packs a punch way beyond reasonable expectation. Time to take these prettyboys a bit more seriously methinks. (SB)

Sweethead: The Great Disruptors

A promising side project. Sweethead are Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and his blonder than blonde cohort Serrina Sims. They arrive in a guitar squall so indicative of a particular set of inluences that it gives them away like a faded mugshot pinned to a crumbling wall. The dreamy boy/girl harmonies only add to the conviction. There's a whiff of Slowdive on 'Arcane Arcade' but on the title track of this riveting EP the guitars dance around the off beat like on Pixies' 'Bone Machine' before doing that scrapey, flattened riff from The Breeders' 'Cannonball' as the chorus detonates. Like I say, them's some influences. The rest of the package, needless cover of 'Tired of Waiting' aside, delivers too. Marvellous. I'm in. (GK)

And, without further ado, just what is TMF's pick for single of the week?



The Boy Least Likely To: When Life Gives Me Lemons I Make Lemonade

And who can argue with that ? Our man Steven Burnett gave the album a right old rave when it came out and seems he was right to do so. Smart title aside, it's a cracking tune, sunny and light on its feet and brimming with harmonies and vigour; folk pop that deserves a wider audience. (GK)

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