mixtape maestro (2.0)

The fourth release lifted from The Noisettes‘ excellent (and nowhere near as big as it should be) Wild Young Hearts album, “Every Now & Then” sees the London band staying in line with previous singles “Wild Young Hearts” and “Never Forget You”, doling out another magnificent fusion of ex-lover nostalgia with a ’60′s soul-pop-inspired musical frame.

But whereas those tracks hid frontwoman Shingai Shoniwa’s regrets over past romances behind perky arrangements, illustrating a sensibility that she had for the most part healed with the passing of time, “Every Now & Then” follows an opposite route, finding her still handicapped by an enormous heartache with moody guitar and swirling strings depicting her inner despair with a moving dramatic flair.

“You see we were never through/ I never said I loved you/ Even when we said goodbye/ I never thought it was the last time,” a down-in-the-dumps Shingai recalls, a single moment of solitude or a certain song being played on the radio instantly filling her mind with tearjerking memories of secret kisses in a certain former love’s bedroom and the postcards he would send inked with “stories (that) would excite me”.

With her yearning for a gust of wind to bring him back into her life and light up “this empty room” she dubs her current depressing existence, Shoniwa’s sorrow cuts so deep, you can’t help but be pulled into the doldrums alongside her, especially once the arrival of a stunning Bond theme song-like climax of swollen orchestration and piercing cries of being “down, down, down” come into play.

Catch the song’s music video below, then take a listen to one of our favorite cuts from Mick Boogie and Terry Urban’s must-have Noisettes vs. Kanye West mash-up mixtape Wild Young Heartbreak: “Saturday Night Paranoia”, Chicago production duo Christian Rich‘s metallic-sleek marriage of the Noisettes’ revenge fantasy “Saturday Night” with West’s whip-crack heavy, new wave jaunt “Paranoid”.

DL: “Saturday Night Paranoia (Christian Rich Remix)” (alt)

The Noisettes so nail the 60′s girl group/ Phil Spector sound on the divine “Never Forget You”, that more than once, one is forced to remind themselves that this isn’t some cover of some four decade old song. Hell, if it weren’t so crispily produced and given a modern zing by the occasional guitar-charged underlining, you could almost mistake it for actually being a recently-unearthed-from-the-vaults old vinyl gem.

Like previous single “Wild Young Hearts”, “Never Forget You” meshes the band’s well-educated grasping of yesteryear pop with a light dollop of Broadway glee, conjuring up a carefree effervescence that could put an instant halt to the most sourest of moods. Even better, it puts a different spin on the fluffy puppy love scenario these things typically produce lyrics-wise, instead of scripting one’s giddiness while immersed in the delightful throes of young romance, nicely using it as a past-tense point of reference during a long-broken-up couple’s reunion at the local pub.

“What you drinkin’/…Rum or whiskey?” singer Shingai Shinowa opens, armed with apologies based on her late arrival and inability to return her ex’ phone calls. And almost instantly, the duo realize that their at-once great chemistry hasn’t at all been lost in the passing of time, as shared giggles over her retained lack of promptness lead the way to fond recollections of their dating heyday (“We were mischievous/ You were always wearing black…”) and teary-eyed assurances (“We just got swallowed up/ You know I didn’t forget you”).

Bathed in an expert use of twinkling slow moments, dramatic orchestra swells, and backing vox chirps of “Always remember me” that seem to be birthed from the clouds-perched angels above, to not be left a bit verklempt by “Never Forget You”‘s fade-out would mean that you have no soul.

From the excellent album, Wild Young Hearts.

DL: “Never Forget You” (alt)

UK indie rock-ers the Noisettes might have been armed with an unapologetic, rebel blend of razor-sharp punk, classic rock, jazz and blues that drew heavy critical praise, and an eye-grabbing English/ Zimbabwean beauty of a frontwoman with a background in theater and the circus and an oh-so-cool government tag (Shingai Shoniwa), but sadly, all these elements combined weren’t enough to draw them much commercial fortune. With a sleeker re-formatting of their eclectic style on their latest cycle, though, the three-piece’s luck seems about to change.

Sounding a million years away from their earlier sound, new single “Don’t Upset The Rhythm” has already kicked off their year on a largely successful note. Mostly thanks to it’s inclusion in a new Mazda ad, but also due to it’s infectious indulgence in swirly, disco diva territory, the dance record has opened them up to pop audiences in a major way, looking to debut big on next week’s UK singles chart. This newfound mainstream success should only continue once ears get better trained on the equally peppy “Wild Young Hearts”.

The title cut off their upcoming album, “Hearts” isn’t as much of a giant leap from their previous sound as “Rhythm”, making it a better sell to the band’s longtime fans. Merging a Strokes-y garage pop feel with jazzy piano bits, the track nurses an appealing feelgood swing that’s perfect for Shoniwa’s ruminations on being young and having fun.

Yeah, she might have lost a boyfriend recently, but she “won’t weep” because “summer is here again” and, like every change of season, it brings with it the exciting potential for all kinds of new single-night adventures with members of the opposite sex. Every now and then, twinges of regret towards this frolicsome lifestyle float across her mind (“Somebody tell me tell me tell me, when will I learn?”), but she just as quickly casts off the sobering thoughts with a simple “Damn these wild young hearts” shake of the head, her interest in enjoying life while she’s still in her prime proving far too irresistible to give up.

A great tune to start the day off right.

Wild Young Hearts arrives in the UK, April 20th.

Wild Young Hearts

DL: “Wild Young Hearts” (alt)

Need another reason why the Noisettes need to be tagged as your favorite band of ’09? Below, catch their sublime Live Lounge cover of The Killers’ “When You Were Young”:

DL: “When You Were Young (The Killers Cover)” (alt)