| This Week's Highlights |
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analysis w/e 14.5.11 |
DVDs out 9.5.11 |
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@ DVDfever Youtube |
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May 11 2011 
DVDfever co uk
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Progressive Penate, er, moves on. Apparently, 24 year-old Londoner Jack Fabian Penate wasn’t that taken with his last album, top ten hit Matinee in 2007. So, like you do, you start all over again, in true progressive style. He searched his heart, took some advice and looked to get out of his comfort zone. Did he jump or was he pushed? Penate confesses, “I started working with Norman Cook. I felt I needed to learn from other people, to be able to take me out of my comfort zone.” He jumped then. Despite claims it’s a Soul record, it isn’t, though it is more soulful than its predecessor, and working with producer Paul Epworth has made this album a bigger album sonically, with larger soundscapes across the board, including dance-disco-beats and occasional gospel-like backups.
Week commencing June 29 it’s in at 16 in the UK charts, a great start, though lead-off single Be The One is nowhere to be seen on the singles pile. Last time around Penate delved into some rockabilly, ska and heavy soul. So appropriately titled, Everything Is New, is that in every way, except for the fact that 80s have played a big part which can be heard on opener Pull My Heart Away, a cross between a Simple Minds jangly riff and an Orange Juice vocal. The follow-up track Be The One has echoes of Haircut One Hundred, a nifty foot-tapping beat and plenty of earworm qualities. The title track has masses of 80s like bass-funk grooves, a throwback when a sweaty Saturday night was all about rope lights, follow-spots and glitter balls. In there, I’m sure I can hear the spirit of Kid Creole and Coconuts at their boogie-tastic best. Next dancefloor gem, So Near is a whopping call to sweat and groove. If released as a single (and possibly given the Fatboy Slim treatment) this could be a summer sensation. The reverbed and ghostly vocal along with the shifting beats of Every Glance make it one of the coolest tracks here, but it’s the massive Balearic house beats of (a Basement Jaxx sounding) Give Yourself Away (Fatboy looking over his shoulder maybe?) that takes the album into another dimension. There are compromises to his new found direction where he tries to cling to his previous ‘Landan’ roots (accent in particular, whether fake or not), heard on the blokey gig cries of Let’s All Die and closer Body Down. The verdict – What next me ol’ son?
Weblinks: jackpenate.com / xlrecordings.com
The full list of tracks included are :
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B 37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier. PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
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Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
