Single Review//alansmithee - Surplus
Alan Smithee never likes his work. His name first
appeared in the Sixties, a pseudonym applied when a director wanted to disavow
their art, usually for reasons of artistic interference. Now he's reportedly
rocked up in Livingston and is claimed to be writing songs for a young and
rumbustious quartet, who have in turn bastardised his name for their own. If
this is an actual creative relationship and not an artistic conceit, it makes
the travails of such as Oasis seem a tantrum in a ballpit by comparison.
Listening to debut single 'Surplus', it's difficult to see
exactly why Mr Smithee wouldn't want to take full credit for his creation here.
This is a perfectly palatable slice of Caledonian jangle-fuzz in the vein of early
Teenage Fanclub, with a quick-slow, loud-quiet dynamic in the first half that
echoes the Pixies in their pomp, swampy surf-psych intercut with jangly
interludes and a mellifluous Scotch baritone expressing just how rotten it is
to discover one is extraneous.
The second half builds into a more thrashy
climax, with scuzzed riffs skirling through the mix as the lyrics plead “I'm
ruthless, but useful still” in impassioned tones. It's a thrilling, if
often-trod path – alansmithee might never set the world alight, but whoever
writes their tunes doesn't shouldn't be ashamed to see their name in lights.
'Surplus' is released on June 3rd on Flowers In
The Dustbin.
facebook.com/alansmithee
Reviewed by Edward Feery
