The Brute Chorus - Chateau Single Review

The Brute Chorus
Chateau
Single Review

In which the barstaff of Camden's infamous Hawley Arms serve up a ramshackle barrage of demented Nick Cave fairy-tale blues and Jack-White-style mewling. There's a heavy hint of 'Lovecats' bass here, some scratchy trebly guitar there, and a heavy tom rumble underpinning things to devilish effect. Of course it's a complete mess in so many ways and the chord sequences are decades old, but the whole thing just works almost purely by dint of being so bloody cool.

B-side garage duet 'The Cuckoo and the Stolen Heart' kicks its legs up further in a cheeky banjo and snare hoedown and some fabulously hysterical bickering between duelling vocalists James Steele and Tigs. Strictly speaking there's no way this stuff should come from this side of the Atlantic but it's deliriously entertaining nonetheless.

Owen Lloyd