Jan 22 2010 3:47 pm,
Chew Lips
‘Unicorn’
(Family)
Given London’s sheer wealth, if not excess, of female led electro-pop you could be forgiven for greeting Chew Lips’ debut with preconceptions of it being surplus to requirements. You would be very, very wrong. Track after track, potential single after potential single, the self-released ‘Unicorn’ is slick, accomplished and swaggering with the kind of confidence which emits not only through the ten tracks here, but on the decision to leave two of their biggest songs off. Debut single ‘Solo’, the track that originally pushed them into consciousness, and the brilliant ‘Salt Air’ are nowhere to be seen. A similar move was made by Foals (‘Hummer’ and ‘Mathletics’) in 2008 to mixed results, whereas New Order controversially left ‘Blue Monday’ off ‘Power, Corruption & Lies’. It’s a move that hardly reflect a poverty of ideas. From the opening stomp and thud of ‘Eight’, the pop brilliance of ‘Karen’, the unexpected tenderness of secret track ‘Piano Song’ or the pulsating dark heart of ‘Toro’, there’s a substance and depth here, an animus suffocated on albums such as La Roux’s debut by major label production. It deserves to be massive – make it so.
Stephen Kelly
