I get very excited whenever I hear a new song that features New
Order’s Bernard Sumner.
It’s just something about his deadpan voice, dry delivery and jangly
guitar that turns this 35 year-old cynic into a giddy, excitable
teenager all over again.
Sink or Swim – the debut single from his new project Bad Lieutenant –
is no exception. It’s a rushing indie-rock tune with a killer chorus.
Unsurprisingly, it sounds just like New Order, only without Hooky’s
thundering bass riffs.
Over chiming guitars, Sumner issues a stark warning to a friend: ‘What
you doing with that stupid little girl? Stop your fooling. Don’t you
know it’s gonna hurt when she leaves you.”
Throw in some swooning, soulful backing vocals and you have a song
that’s up there with some of New Order’s best moments. Now, if only
Hooky had played bass on it, then it would have been a stone-cold
classic.
 
For a limited time, you can download Bad Lieutenant’s Sink or Swim
single for free from: http://www.badlieutenant.net/
Bad Lieutenant formed in 2007, with Sumner on guitar and vocals, Phil
Cunningham (guitar) and Jake Evans (guitar and vocals).
Their debut album, Never Cry Another Tear, is set for release on October 12.

As the last few days of, ahem, the Great British Summertime, slip
away, why not listen to some lovely pastoral folk-pop before the
leaves start falling from the trees?

 Dan and Lorna from Skinny Lister popped into the garden at Pop Junkie
HQ to give us an exclusive acoustic performance of their debut single,
Plough and Orion, which is out this week on iTunes and Amazon.

 

 I was lucky enough to attend the recent single launch party at The
Slaughtered Lamb in Clerkenwell and saw the full Skinny Lister band
play an intimate set of charming, rustic tunes.

 Their performance ended with a full-on on sea shanty-style hoedown,
complete with mandolin and ukulele.

 Talk about keeping it reel!

 www.myspace.com/skinnylister
http://www.youtube.com/user/popjunkieTV