Ways To An End

I wake from my long slumber to bring you a single which has me more excited than any other new release I've heard this year. Ladies and gentlemen, I present you: Mirrors. "Ways To An End" is the Brighton, UK band's first single on venerable old dance label Skint.

I first heard the b-side "Broken By Silence" at a bar Sunday night and was sufficiently smitten enough to run to the DJ booth to find out what it was. After downloading the single today I was happy to find that the a-side is even better.

If I had to describe the single I'd say it's like a modern meeting of "Beautiful World" by Devo and "Doctor! Doctor!" by Thompson Twins. Which is to say that it's a) rather synthy and b) immediately reminiscent of things you remember from 27 years ago, in a very good way.

"Ways To An End" was released last month on 7-inch vinyl and is also available for download at eMusic, Amazon, iTunes, etc. You can get a free demo of "Organ Song" by signing up to their mailing list here. A full-length album is expected in February.

How many references can you spot in the video?

When I Return To The World

Lorraine. It's not the first name I'd choose for a band. It sounds too much like your grandmother, and not enough like a BIG! POP! OUTFIT! from Norway. Maybe Lorraine means something else in Norwegian. Something less old-lady-like.

Anyway, I've been reading about this band for a while now, but I've never been pulled in. I always felt like their stuff was a bit blah, if I'm honest. That is, until I came across their video for new single "When I Return To The World":



Wonderful, no? Is it just me, or does it sound like a combination homage to "Beautiful World" by Devo and "Living On The Ceiling" by Blancmange? I don't say this in a bad way at all. I mean:

Devo - Beautiful World



Blancmange - Living On The Ceiling



That's a compliment! "When I Return To The World" was released last week on 7" and iTunes, apparently. Lorraine have a bunch of older tracks streaming on their MySpace page (including a half-decent cover of "Heaven" by the Psychedelic Furs). Like I said, it's mostly blah but this new single definitely piques my curiosity about what they'll be up to next!

As an aside, watching that Blancmange video for the first time in a decade or so reminded me that I really miss 80s "on location" videos. A lot.