This latest release from the Weepop stable is a classic indie split/cover 7″. And, very nice it is to see one again
Vermont’s The Smittens take The Just Joans‘ best song What Do We Do Now? and kick all the pathos out of it then feed it up on cola bottles. Leaving us with a not-unpleasant fizzy confection that pops and ba-bah’s along at a fair clip. The result seems to bypass any semblence of meaning or content, but hey, it’s fun enough to let them off. In fact, it’s nearly fune enough to let them off with the not only unnecessary, but somewhat misguided, gender realignment of one of the protagonists. Their own song Summer Sunshine does away with any such concerns. It’s handclaps and cares away; mixtapes on the beach. And, as enjoyably disposable. As every modern lover knows, you don’t have to be deep to be profound.
The return leg from Lanarkshire’s finest kinda has them doing the exact opposite. They take a pretty blatant lift of the Go-Gos Vacation and manage to imbue it with a portent that makes it sound like the most heartborken and world weary drunkards lament. The translation seems to sit abit better. This is either due to the boozy theme or the fact that, to be honest, there’s barely a whisp of lyric there in the first place – leaving it wid open to interpretation. It also sees me losing the JJs Pointless-And-Annoying-Sample Sweep as I never thought they’d sink to Abagail’s Party. Wrong again.
For their own song, the Joans have taken another step towards piecing together the great lost debut and re-recorded I Hear Your The Man Now, John. A fittingly sly choice as it becomes apparent that it exists as some sort of comapnaion piece to What Do We Do Now?. Whereas in the latter there’s a sense of whistfulness in the narrator looking at all he’s grown distant from, John is a spiteful and nasty snarl from the point of view of the left behind. We all know most anger comes from hurt, so do a lot of the best songs.