Single Reviews: Weather Girl EP
I used to love The Landspeed Loungers, which you may or may not know is where Being 747's singer and founder Dave Cooke is from. Listening to this reminds me of their later work; it's nice to know he's as sharp as ever. It opens with the melodic "Weather Girl", which is a great tune and his vocals sound superb. The only problem with the track is the weather metaphors are stretched to the limit complete with thunder in the background. Still, it's a good start. Next is "Mind of a twelve year old child", which is more upbeat and the music is OK, but this is more filler than killer. However the last two tracks are brilliant, "Use Your Friends" is about manipulating your friends to get whatever you want out of life, being witty and a credit to their style. The last track "lover number 1" is definitely my favourite off the EP, a simple but quite ambitious track, it flows brilliantly and Dave's slightly eccentric vocals work really well. Overall this is a good EP and a good piece of indie pop, but lyrics are poor on some tracks and it's evident they can definitely pull off more than their showing us. Still Being 747 obviously seem to know what direction they want to take and this listener will always be eager to hear any new material by them.
by Paul Cocker
Peeling The Finch - a review by Print Radio
Being 747 are a hybrid formed from two Leeds bands: Dave Cooke from Landspeed Loungers along with Steve and Paul Morricone from The Scaramanga Six. From track one - Weathergirl - the production values on this CD are bright and clear, the lead vocals up-front with plenty of presence, perfectly suiting the lyric-driven nature of the music.
Being 747's songs are saturated in the sarcasm and satire of contemporary acts like Divine Comedy, but also going back to Ray Davies and The Kinks - they're joking. but, like Mac The Knife, you have the uncomfortable suspicion that the smiling song might be carrying a switchblade. The dark side in these songs is implied, never openly stated: a bitter pill sugared with tightly-performed energetic pop.
I loved the Hammond rumbling in sympathy with the thunder sound effect on Weathergirl, and the clever phrasing on the hook of Mind Of A 12 Year Old Child: the last word 'child' always coming as a surprise. (I could imagine David Byrne and Talking Heads doing this track) I also liked the cod folk-sincerity of the verses on Use Your Friends, setting you up for the cold. matter-of-fact, post-Thatcherite sarcasm of the choruses: 'Use them, chew them, spit them out....Let the world work for you". The punk-filkiness, though not the overt comedy, in this song is remeniscent of The Levellers and Oysterband. Lover Number 1 - track 4 - is engagingly kitsch in a 60's ballad sort of way, even if, having set up this premise, it tends to go through the motions a bit from then on.... Sharp and professional, and fun. M.A.
As you can see, the two reviews seem to totally contradict each other - each reviewer has favoured certain tracks and disliked the opposite from the other. Just goes to show you never can tell - nor listen to the single opinion of one.