PON013

The Scratch - 'Undercover/Time to say…/Outfaking the fakers' CD EP

TRACKLISTING:

UNDERCOVER
TIME TO SAY...
OUTFAKING THE FAKERS

REVIEW:
The Scratch’s new single is a ballad. Yep a slowie, get the acoustic guitars out and look earnest here’s the chance to show their soft side dude. Thing is though it works. No, it doesn’t just work it might even be the best thing they’ve done yet. What with slow songs having been hijacked by the likes of Coldplay, Keane, Athlete et al this reviewer was beginning to believe there would never be another lament that actually touched his dark cold heart. I feared I had been hardened by too many soft boys whimpering ‘cos they miss their mummies.

What ‘Undercover reminds me of most is Blur. Blur, lest we forget have written some of the greatest ballads ever (Out of Time, This is a Low, Tender, The Universal, To the End, No Distance Left to Run, I rest my case m’Lord). ‘This is the comeback / from the comedown / it is the aftershock / from the new sound’ so starts lead singer Andy over acoustic guitars. The song builds slowly to a chorus of ‘It’s the lover / You got undercover’ before they chuck in some strange whizzing electronic sounds that should spoil the whole thing but bizarrely bring a tear to my eye. What’s it about? Haven’t a fuckin’ clue but it’s marvellous and deserves to be sung back to the band by fields full of pissed people at a festival near you. [www.whisperinandhollerin.co.uk]