GARTH BROOKS
People Loving People
**
The Stetson-wearing superstar is back and he's in conciliatory mood. "You won't find no resolution in the bottom of a bottle," he opines. "In the stars or Aristotle..." (One has to assume the ancient Greek polymath is, equal parts, surprised to be namechecked in a Garth Brooks song, and irked to be lumped alongside pseudoscience and alcohol abuse.) "The only answer to the problem," Brooks continues, "is people loving people." Just to recap then, if you find yourself at the centre of a bitter dispute, don't be stubborn. Be the bigger man. Compromise. It's the Garth Brooks way. Er, starting from today.
TV ON THE RADIO
Happy Idiot
****
TV on The Radio are back! Plucked not so much from the Where-Are-They-Now? as the I'd-Forgotten-They-Ever- Existed file, the Brooklyn band have weathered the 2011 passing of producer Gerard Smith to return with one of their most infectious tracks to date. A fifth studio album Seeds is out November 18th.
SOAK
B a nobody
***
Eighteen-year-old Derry native Bridie Monds-Watson has already earned comparisons to Cat Power and Beach House, but her voice is totally unique. Her forthcoming tour includes a performance at the Unitarian Church in Dublin on November 8th.
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
Give Us a Kiss
****
Once upon a time, a man and a little child were walking into a deep, dark forest in the dead of night. "I'm scared," whispered the child. "You're scared?" the man scoffed. "How'd you think I feel? I have to walk back this way on my own." That little story, in the space available, is the closest approximation I can conjure up to convey how dark, disturbing and succinct is this track, taken from the soundtrack to Cave's documentary 20,000 Days on Earth.
