Reviews

REVIEW: RAT BOY- Tracks featuring Casso Clay

Posted on by feedamusic

Today has been an eventful day for music but something that has been overshadowed is RAT BOY’s release of ‘Tracks’- a B side to his single ‘Move’. Casso Clay is the featuring artist on the tune, a rapper from London who was born in 1904 (according to his twitter). Clay has been making a name for himself this past year with several drops on soundcloud, many have been well received and rightfully so as all of them are catchy bangers. His feature starts off the song and sets the track up brilliantly, with the help of a funky, repetitive baseline that runs throughout the whole song. What makes Casso Clay so great is his lyrics all seem so relevant and relatable, similar to Cardy, and this is why the song works so well.

When RAT BOY kicks in over his hip hop instrumentals, he manages to emphasise the quality of this track and his rhymes are equally as clever and socially relevant as Clay’s. The voices of Cardy and Clay complement each other brilliantly and it’s nice to see RAT BOY throwing in some more samples of politicians in the song, a similar voice to the man at the end of ‘Knock Knock’ on the ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ mixtape. In my opinion, the b side is better than ‘Wasteman’, on his ‘Fake ID’ ep, but not as good as ‘Left For Dead’, on his ‘Sign On’ single, but then again I think Left For Dead is his best song to date.

As good as the song is, the only part that I didn’t like was the trumpet samples that digress in and out of the song, but that was only because they reminded me of the spy missions on Club Penguin. Overall this song is a well produced b side to “Move” and one that is definitely well worth a listen.

Rating: 7/10

REVIEW: Catfish and the Bottlemen- Souncheck

Posted on by feedamusic

If you haven’t heard of Catfish and the Bottlemen by now, then you have probably passed out for the last year and a half and suddenly woken up again. Their debut album was a huge success, going gold in the UK and reaching the top ten of the album charts. Today they released the lead single from their second album, due to drop later this year; the song is entitled ‘Soundcheck’ and doesn’t express a huge change from their earlier tracks. I used to be a big fan of the band, seeing them 3 times in one year but recently I have gone off ‘Balcony’ and this song failed to excite me at all.

The song starts off with Van McCann’s signature muted down guitar and soothing vocals that howl about how he “doesn’t act the way he used to” because he “doesn’t feel the same” about whoever he is mourning about. Unfortunately, for me, these lyrics and guitar riffs are too similar to their debut album and they really are not quite the stadium fillers that the band want to produce.

Something that I do really like about this song is the fuzzy, almost Black Keys like, guitar riff that builds up to the chorus, which is fairly dull by the second time round. However the  bridge is very powerful and arguably, musically, the best aspect of any Catfish and the Bottlemen single that has been released. It’s a shame because this part, on its own, is not only compelling but musically interesting too; the rest of the song just seems annoyingly weak and rushed. It’s a fact that this record will still sell and die hard Bottlemen fans will be pleased with the outcome but, when looking at the single with an open mind, it really wasn’t worth the build up of a year and a half. Van and Co quoted “I feel like the last album was the support band, or even the soundcheck and this one’s the headliner,” but I have to disagree, songs like ‘Pacifier’ and ‘Rango’ blow this out of the water and seem like the headliner with ‘Soundcheck’ being the 1:30 slot on the Festival Republic stage at Reading and Leeds.

Although this was not the best of songs, it is good to see Catfish headlining some festivals this year- including Liverpool’s sound city and Truck Festival, both events expressing an amazing line up. They are also set to play the likes of Kendall Calling and Y Not? which equally have impressive bills, featuring Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and Madness.

Truck Festival (July 15)
Kendall Calling (July 28)
Y Not Festival (July 29)
Rating: 4/10 (Sorry Catfish fans).

y not