Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad: The Checks ‘Candyman Shimmer’

Every week, a panel of writers for The Corner will focus on a bunch of recently released local singles and grade them. We call it Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad. Read through the panelists thoughts below and let us know what you think of the song in the comments section.

[Soundcloud]

[Grade: 3.2]

Kim Gruschow: This is both lethargic and odd. The vocals are breathy with false-sounding throaty rumbles and gross nasal lows. They’re accompanied by a repetitive cut of a dubbed-out poor-man’s St Germain. There’s some nasty whistly tones, sprinkled like salt on this lengthy wound. The result is a late 90s air, something like an imagined filler track from a jazzy Verve Pipe album that no one ever heard. [2]

Matthew Plunkett: They’ve gone all Primal Scream on us with an attempt at some kind of hip change. Quite the hip operation now. We get that you are old enough to smoke pot and I see that you are tired of being the garage Joe Cocker. That’s fine but why this desperate, sweaty grab for cool? Dancers in the audience are making spidery fingers at the sky, their bodies writhing in a snaky dance. The festival streams with sunshine and I can smell armpit. Underarm hair. I have to leave now. [1]

Luke Jacobs: Usually when someone says ‘maturation’ to me when referring to a band its always a polite way of saying ‘playing the same songs but with more expensive gear, nicer studios and the singer being married’. So when I say maturation I have to be clear I mean none of these things. I think this shows a maturation because for a Check’s song the focus does not have the vocal up front and in your face. Instead we have much more subtle focus on the vocal line and a rumbling gait that would do Jimmy Cliff proud. Some Doors like noodling then rounds out the sound of the rest this track. I’m not sure it really works though. I personally think that if they kept the same backing, guitar, drums or whatever and then pushed the vocal a bit more into the centre instead of putting flanger or whatever else is there it would been a lot more sinister sounding. Maybe this is one of those tracks you need to hear live to fully get it. [6]

Timothy Marsh: This sounds like a bunch of dead people expressing how boring they are. The clickity-clanging elements of this initially suggest something quirky and fun, but by the time this has repeated for four minutes, the realization of how much soul this empty dustbin of a song is lacking is well and truly established. They liken this to the concept of cruising a highway; I liken it to the onset of depression. [3]

Eamonn Marra: I can’t quite put my finger on what this is ripping off, I swear I have heard something that sounds almost exactly the same as this years ago. At least the Checks are trying something new, their old formula was getting pretty boring. [4]