The Fix

Don’t have time to search out this week’s essential MP3s, streams and viral videos? That’s why we’re here.

Coldplay “Violet Hill”
For those hoping that bringing Brian Eno into the studio and giving their forthcoming album a ridiculous title like Viva La Vida of Death and All His Friends would signal that Coldplay was about to pull a Radiohead and start making records that sounded like fax machines, this freebie single might be a bit of a disappointment. For everyone else, it’s exactly what you wanted–an epic, mid-tempo piano ballad with Chris Martin beautifully spouting off his usual nonsense over the top. Cheers.
MP3: “Violet Hill”

(via Butter Team)

Dizzee Rascal “Where’s Da G’s”
Apart from the part where he goes, “Liar, liar, pants on fire!,” what we don’t know what this veteran British rapper is going on about on this track from his belatedly released new album, Maths + English. All we know is that it’s probably the closest thing we’re ever going to get to a hip-hop Cylon.
MP3: “Where’s Da G’s”
(via Daily Rind)

Les Savy Fav “Sweat Descends”
After allegedly killing it at Coachella his year, bloated, bald, bearded and shirtless Les Savy Fav frontman Tim Harrington is ready to destroy your iPod with this raucous old school sounding punk joint from the group’s latest, After the Balls Drop. The Replacements would be proud.
MP3: “Sweat Descends”
(via Les Savy Fav)

Newton Faulkner “Dream Catch Me”
Thanks to that idiot on “American Idol,” sensitive singer-songwriters with dreadlocks are all the rage this season. Too bad there’s only one with an actual album out. Still, we’ve got to admit, Newton Faulkner’s first single from his debut album, Hand Built By Robots, is pretty damn good. Crowded House-esque, even.
MP3: “Dream Catch Me”
(via Columbia Records)

South “Better Things”
Don’t count these Brit-pop also-rans out just yet. From its fifth album, You Are Here, the trio returns with a pretty, straightforward ballad for some very complicated times.
MP3: “Better Things”
(via Bluhammock Music)

Nobody ever said making a second album was easy. This is especially the case for buzz bands, and doubly bad if your debut was dubbed “critically acclaimed” by those ever-important music mags or if your tunes received a cyber thumbs up straight from the blogosphere. On their second album Konk, Brighton-based Brit-pop outfit the Kooks struggle with the age-old dilemma of the anxiety of influence. This rugged pop foursome–who borrowed their quirky moniker from a David Bowie song–cite directly from their sonic sources on their sophomore effort, drawing inspiration from the British bands of rock’s past and present, revealing very little of their unique musical point of view.

Konk is a not-too-terrible amalgamation of the Kinks’ delicate rock-infused whimsy, the brash rebellion of the Who, and the defiant growl and over-confident swagger of the now defunct Libertines. The opener “See the Sun” could be mistaken for an early track by the latter, written on one of Pete Doherty’s sober and more optimistic days. “Down to the Market” revives the teen-friendly exuberance of the Undertone’s underage classic “Teenage Kicks,” and the feigned studio intimacy of “Tick of Time” combines the beautiful wistfulness of early Kinks tracks laced with a reggae-esque lazy drawl. All in all, Konk isn’t unlistenable; in fact its dozen-or-so tracks are pleasant pop ditties that would fit perfectly as the soundtrack for a lazy summer night at the pub or as background music for a sleazy-teen romantic scene in “Gossip Girl”. But if it’s British rock you’re craving, dust off your records and stick with the classics.