Well, don’t I look a fool? When I was talking about Sean MacLeod’s last single, “Romeo,” I made a point of saying that here we had an artist who understood that sometimes you don’t have to push the envelope too much and that it was okay to dig into what has gone before and just do it better. Now here he is doing just the opposite; if I didn’t know better, I would think that “Cool Carisma” had been written just to trip me up. (Not that I would be that arrogant to believe that anyone takes that much notice of my scribblings.)
So, if “Romeo” drilled down into singer-songwriter territory, “Cool Charisma” is pushing off into all manner of far-flung genres in search of influences and elements from which to build it’s signature sound. As it explodes into a sonic riot of organ washes and guitar slashes, you can hear everything from the pre-Britpop baggy scene emerging from formative late eighties indie, The Beatles after they discovered drugs, the rave scene (which was only ever about discovering drugs), and 60’s psychedelia, (hang on, there’s a pattern forming here) alt-dance creatively colliding with rock and roll and all manner of exlorative music!
It doesn’t hurt that MacLeod himself looks not unlike a young Simon “Sice” Rowbottom from The Boo Radleys. (Just thought I’d mention it.) And if ever there was a return to the Britpop sound, not a nostalgic revisit but a modern reappraisal, a carrying of that torch into a new chapter, this is the song that could open such a door.
Right, where did I leave my parka and bucket hat?
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