Charlotte Hatherley - 'Bastardo' (Double Dragon)
4/5
By: JJ Florio
There are certain unsaid rules in life that need to be strictly adhered by. When in public, never make direct eye contact with anyone who has facial tattoos. Do not urinate in public swimming pools. Never buy a hotdog from an 'al-fresco chef' on Oxford Street.
Never mess with a musician's instrument.
The last of these is perhaps the most important. A musician's respective instrument is like an extension of their souls, something deeply special that has accompanied the person through life like a loyal lover, and deserves respect. All drummers have the same tale of, after a gig, some drunken muscular dick-head who 'used to play drums a bit' casually picking up a loose pair of sticks (which should never be left lying idle) and while the owner's back is turned, laying into the instrument with all the grace of a loan lumberjack felling a particularly challenging oak. Behaviour of this kind should, justifiably, result in mass public floggings.
The 'Bastardo' that Charlotte Hatherly refers to in her latest single is one such defiler of this precious rule. It is a tale of a boy meets girl, boy goes back to girl's and then boy running off with girl's Gibson SG while she is in innocent slumber.
'Bastardo', indeed. And yet rather than manifest itself in a Kelis style 'I hate you etc.' rant, the story is set to just over three minutes of gloriously upbeat guitar driven pop that is becoming Ms Hatherly's trademark. With what at first seems an accessibly simple and quirky tune soon reveals a host of underlying complexities in the oddly metered verse, some beautifully fluent guitar playing and a harmonic vocal breakdown that surely Brian Wilson himself would give a nod of approval too. Man-hating-pissed-off-girl-angst has never quite sounded this upbeat.
Artists in this article: Charlotte Hatherley
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