Generals and Majors,

The Bellyaches is serving its purpose well; its aim is to ensure that I keep practising how to write properly.

Waiting on the postman can be more annoying than an annoying ringtone. The one that currently plagues Chez Aches is one that says, “Message!” at first crankily, yet relatively quietly, before being repeated with increased intensity until it begins screaming. I actually don’t mind the sentiments or the volume; it’s the fact that it sounds just like me that’s irksome.

The postman brought this week’s batch of music in two doses, most of it was not new music – it certainly wasn’t by the time it arrived. I took advantage of some gift vouchers afforded to me by Amazon - these are generally obtained by complaining about their service (a second dash; they’re going like hot cakes) – to buy the first two CDs: Porcella by The Deadly Snakes and Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles Collection.

I have an announcement to make: this is where this edition was interrupted and recommenced a day later. I learned much in that day to enhance these reviews, ergo the rest of this edition becomes Bellyaches Deluxe.

The Deadly Snakes were a band from Toronto. I bought Porcella to see if the rest of it was as good as Gore Veil which is an amazingly brilliant song introduced to us by Mark Lamarr. However, the whole album can’t consist of Gore Veils and once I had accepted that I was able to appreciate it just a little more. Stepping away from the matter in hand for a moment, I don’t like the works of Nick Cave hugely, I can listen to him in small doses, I can appreciate the musicianship, the talent and the style but I don’t have a need for it; I think it’s probably of most use to its listeners when they are low (sad or angry), but when I’m in those moods, I really don’t want an angry man scaring me. There are similarities to some Nick Cave songs in some of the early tracks of this album, they’re a bit darker and grubby, and not particularly to my liking, this mood emanates mainly from the vocals because musically the pieces are quite enjoyable, there is an array of instruments that are played and arranged well. Gore Veil arrives as track V, if someone finds that Gore Veil fails to touch them, they probably should be earmarked as potential criminals. It’s all about existing and the frailty of humanity. The chorus lingers in the mind, however, that’s the only part of the song that’s a bit random (or maybe it isn’t), it goes:

Today, I saw an apple in my head,
And there was blood on my hands,
Everything was fire engine red and all the good pigeons/black guys sang.

Anyway, the rest of the album becomes a bit more upbeat afterwards, Work is a song about working, it sounds like a man analysing a workmate whilst working, it’s got some mechanical clunking, it has a stupid lyric, “the roof of your house is the bottom of the sky” which isn’t really overly clever but it sticks out for me for some unknown reason. The final song is called A Bird in the Hand is Worthless, it seems to be a final lament that is backed by a simple Shuttleworth-like keyboard beat, it’s not dissimilar to Sunscreen. In fact, I was going to write my own belated mock version for The Bellyaches that was tailored to me, I wouldn’t have said “a bird in the hand is worthless” but that was one of the sentiments I was going to include; there’s nothing like a kingfisher streaking up a river. In summary, there are many songs on Porcella of differing styles.

I don’t need to say much about XTC, they formed many years before my existence. I don’t get much of a chance to catch up with old music but XTC kept cropping up on the radio as one of the old things that I liked and eventually I had to do something; a compilation was the cheapest and laziest thing to do. Some of it is straightforward pop but there’s nothing wrong with that, I particularly like Generals and Majors (it was involved in the incident I reported to the Safest Parkers in Town), it reminds me of an undulating flock of finches. Everyone loves a good finch.

Lasting only a touch over 18 minutes, A Lesson in Crime by Tokyo Police Club will be called a mini-album, but I’d call it an album. If they can get the job done in 18 minutes; everyone will be happy. The sooner they get started, the sooner they get finished. Tokyo Police Club are from the same province as The Deadly Snakes, I first heard Nature of the Experiment on KEXP and that’s when I knew they were a cut above all the Artrocker-hyped poop (who are Bromheads Jerkin and the Pigeon Deterrents anyway?) that populates these shores. It’s punchy and it’s different, I never know where the notes are going to go, sometimes with this type of new band, they peddle predictable tunes and their songs are jigsaw-like; a note of that type will fit in there, just because a note of that type fitted in there on a song already written. The keyboards in Tokyo Police Club often give the songs a tinge of Postal Service. Lyrically, they are superb, the album opens with,

Do your neighbour a favour,
Collect their morning paper,
And clip out all the sad bits, no one wants to read that.
Let them take their kids to school and the zoo in peace

In summary, I like them very much.

Finally, under the microscope is My Heart Has a Wish That You Would No Go by Aereogramme. I’ll begin with apologising for my lack of familiarity with Aereogramme, I only went looking after this album due to rare run-in with the single Barriers on the radio. It mystifies me as to how this evaded the playlists of your actual Radio One, Double One and 6music, at a time when they’re swarming over Duke Special. Lyrically, it’s a bit middle-of-the-road and inconsequential to me, but Craig B has a decent voice. Its main appeal for me is in the backing music, it’s just really soothing: grandiose crescendos and majestic sweeping motions. I can find a place for this in my collection quite easily; it doesn’t tread into the territory of Mogwai, 65daysofstatic or Penguin Café Orchestra enough to cause grumbling.