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Popular Workshop

Sean / When Your Heart Spills (split)

Label: Tigertrap Release Date: 04/09/2006

14558
benmarwood by ben marwood September 7th, 2006

It could be considered a surprise that these two acts aren't swiftly becoming household names, and not just because The Far Cries' last single was released on international label giant PIAS and Popular Workshop have enjoyed heavy rotation in Oxford Street’s Topshop. Either of these bristling, fuzzy songs could easily find themselves Flavour Of The Month in the alternative music press, so what better way is there for them to underline their intentions than to team up on a single slab of vinyl?

Appearing at a time when daytime radio can’t get enough of either the blossoming disco revival of Editors, The Far Cries appear with a song which obediently begins much like ‘All Sparks’ before veering suddenly into a secret disco world where the drum machine is king. The momentary pause between verse and chorus makes ‘When Your Heart Spills’ sound like two different songs bolted together. At first it's a lo-fi offering of amateur disco, with a sparse guitar riff and jerky vocals, and later it becomes a free-flowing display of smooth, melodic keyboards.

On the flip-side, after a discordant introduction dissipates into a simple-but-effective guitar riff, Popular Workshop’s ‘Sean’ becomes a dark, mid-tempo thriller. A vicious Dear John documenting the subject’s various disagreeable traits delivered with yells of “Sean! I don’t want your love!” and the side-swipe of “I don’t like your voice”, ‘Sean’ sounds a little like Frank Turner fronting The Strokes on ‘Reptilia’: triumphant and outspoken. To label it the ‘winner’ of the mini-battle would be unfair to The Far Cries, so let’s simply thank Tigertrap for spoiling us so.

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