How Not To Write About Music – III: Starting the Week in Style

One of the joys of writing about new music is that it stops you from getting trapped in the past. Of course, bands like The Waterboys still find their way onto the stereo while I’m cooking dinner, and Echo & The Bunnymen often soundtrack my morning walk, but once I’m at the desk, the focus shifts. It’s less about where music has been and all about where it’s heading.

And this morning brought three pieces that really stood out, each one a reminder that the future of music is always waiting just around the corner.

There is something undeniably gorgeous at the heart of the new release from Outpost Drive, “House of Cards”. It carries the same glow that once shimmered so elegantly—and so eloquently—through the music of bands like Fleetwood Mac: that rare blend of folk-rooted warmth and dream-pop otherworldliness, rock momentum, and pop accessibility.

After decades locked in battle to reclaim the rights to their own songs, Giant Killers could easily have taken the familiar path of so many of their peers—becoming what’s politely termed a “heritage act.” They might have toured the old hits, leaned on nostalgia, played to the faithful, and left it at that. It would have been the easy option: They could have hit the stage playing all the old hits, the tried and tested crowd pleasers, and taken the easy option as minstrels in the gallery, singing to the choir, preaching to the converted…pardon my tangled web of mixed metaphors.

Instead, what we have is something far more rewarding. “Standing on A Ledge” blends hushed vocals and cascading guitars reminiscent of Lightning Seeds, “Soho Story” is a gorgeously understated piece built of bubbling beats and shimmering shards of guitar, and Hope Our Love Lives is the sort of glorious and life-affirming song that The Beautiful Sound would probably pay a small fortune for.

Although I’m not a massive fan of covers, if you are going to take that route, perhaps consider a less obvious approach. After all, there are in existence 2,200 registered recordings of “Yesterday,” and does anyone really think they can surpass the original beauty of “Bridge Over Troubled Water?” (Most versions I have heard sound more like Trouble over Bridgwater!)

And if ever there was a good reason to use creative space, it’s to do exactly what The Muster Point Project achieves here—keeping alive the memory of an artist who, for many, has quietly slipped from view. That artist is John Bottomley, someone I’ll admit I wasn’t familiar with until now. Yet listening back, it’s clear he would have sat comfortably in my own musical wheelhouse when the original surfaced in the mid-’90s. Just as telling, this new version feels just as relevant today.

So, as great as it is when a band puts out new music, in this last case, The Muster Point Project has not only delivered a great version of a great song, but they have also introduced me to a new artist to check out. That’s how you start the week, dontcha think?