They say open with a joke and The Rosenberg Appeal’s punning is as good as it gets with their opening number and title track ‘Now Is The Winter of Our Discotheque’. And just like their debut single ‘Get The Troops Out, It’s A Shoot Out’ that drew me to their musical cause in the first place, what follows is a lyrically eloquent, socially pertinent and suitably obtuse message set to a rising crescendo of post-punkery and avant garde indie-isms. But it isn’t just the lyrics that turn clever tricks, ‘Hands,’ seamless jump from four-four to a waltz timing couldn’t have been handled better by Blyth Power themselves (use of obscure musical reference to look underground and knowledgeable!)
Listen to Now is The Winter of Our Discotheque here
Theirs is a combination of tinkling piano lines and raw edged rhythm guitars, wonderfully and deliberately off-kilter riffs and danceable backbeats coupled with some of the best kitchen sink social commentary since Jarvis Cocker first sashayed into view. It’s brilliant.
I previously identified a certain Morrissey vibe to the vocal delivery and lyrics but thankfully the former stays on the right side of whining and the latter are too punchy to compare with his inert feyness. That said the songs will certain appeal to fans of that music era, ‘iSpy’ in particular, which would have been an instant chart botherer in 1984 and deserves to be today.
It’s always a worry when a band put out a wonderful debut single that they may have put all their eggs in one basket and will have problems following up on the benchmark that they have set for themselves. Well, Now Is The Winter of Our Discotheque dispels any suggestions of one trick pony’s and shows that The Rosenberg Appeal are more than up to the task at hand, especially if the task is to inject fun and fluency, elegance and eloquence into a stale music scene.
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