dEUS - If You Don't Get What You Want (Download-only)
UK release date: 9 August 2004
The mid-90s saw a bizarre explosion of good bands from... Belgium, whose previous claims to fame had been Tour de France champ Eddy Merckx and a silly, moustachioed private detective (and Monsieur Poirot isn't even real). dEUS were were the foremost parvenus, and their Worst Case Scenario debut album was a dizzying and oft genius-filled assortment of arty guitar rock, cleverly placed violins and knowing references. Two vastly inferior albums later and they were off en vacances, or "sabbatical" as they put it, and the world was left to wonder if Belgium's most famous export since fighting beer (that's Stella Artois to the non-pugilists) would ever get back together.
Well, they have. If You Don't Get What You Want is the first fruit from their album sessions, available to download from the dEUS web-site as an hors d'oeuvre before they do the summer festivals. But it is it any good?
Comme ci, comme ca, to be honest. Far from what you might expect from a band who built a reputation on being "out there", If You Don't Get What You Want is almost deceptively simple - from the basic 4/4 beat to the lo-fi, not quite rocking guitars, to the lyrics ("You're lying on my bed / You light a cigarette / Is this some kind of joke? / I asked you not to smoke"). The band calls it "old-school, Velvety garage rock", which just about covers it. Perhaps a discussion of the thesis, "The world needs more Velvety garage rock about as much as America needs another gun factory" is in order. Bring back the violins chaps.
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