Empty Vessels - EP
The Maccabees
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| Name | Artist | Time | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Empty Vessels (Single Version) | The Maccabees & Roots Manuva | 3:14 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
2 |
I Drove All Night (B Side) | The Maccabees | 3:44 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
3 |
Empty Vessels (Redlight Remix) | The Maccabees & Roots Manuva | 4:19 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
4 |
Empty Vessels (DJ@War Remix) | The Maccabees & Roots Manuva | 6:41 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
5 |
Bag Of Bones (Surgeon Remix) | The Maccabees | 5:09 | £0.79 | View In iTunes |
| Total: 5 Songs |
Customer Reviews
Buff Nuff.
(NB: I had originally written and posted this for the previous posting of this single, to which there were a few comments/reviews)
Easily the best 'indie' band around, continuously delivering great records and live shows, developing, maturing, and showing an all-too-often forgotten understanding of their music and how to work it, that so many artists overlook and thus resign themselves to the 'one hit wonder' or 'flash in the pan' sections of recordstores.
As a testament to their willingness to experiment, collaborate, and further themselves for us as their audience and, I hope, for themselves, too, Empty Vessels is a masterstroke - combining what is already a great song dripping with personal emotion and a sincerity with Roots Manuva's fantastically unique flow, technique, delivery, and lyrical insight - the likes of which have placed him in the position of forerunner and pioneer of what is broadly classified as 'Urban' music.
The fact that, shockingly, so many of The Maccabees' fans won't have heard of Roots until this team-up, even though the genres and 'scenes' are so parallel to one another, only adds to the collaboration's excellence - simultaneously creating a track that, granted might take a couple listens to get into, but is undeniably musically brilliant, and gift wrapping the works of two artists, both of whom have an extraordinary body of work behind them, to the others' audience.
The unfortunate, but seemingly unavoidable approach of a faction of both artists' fans, wherein some of each set believes they have a type of ownership or omnipotent knowledge of what it is that the artist is, has lead to a peppering of unfounded negativity about this track.
Those in both camps are convinced their favored artist has been detracted by the other, but, and I'll seek forgiveness from both artists if I'm out of line or mistaken, but I'm sure the very idea behind this was to, once again, push the boundaries of their own sound, to create something familiar and different to their fans, to, as legendary musicians before them have, too, weld the strengths of both party's distinct sounds to form a final piece they can be proud of.
In my opinion, it's not only missing the point by a hundred miles, but wholly unfair with a dash of ignorance to, as a 'fan' of either of these talented artists, conclude that this should be discounted from either act's catalogue of work because of what it has attempted to, or in fact, has achieved.
One of the points I've been made aware of is that this is simply No Kind Words with Roots' vocals over the top, but considering how many remixes (some, truly god awful) there are in this world and how many dire covers exist, I find it difficult to understand why there might be any problem in a refreshing version of an already quality song - especially, if the majority of the original track has been unaltered. Perhaps it could be considered to be a different version of the same song, as the themes addressed by both Orlando and Roots are ones that, while diverse in content, are clearly quite personal and poignant.
Roots' vocals, on first listen, seemed to me to be minutely out of time and a little overbearing in contrast to the level of the music behind. Having, revisited the track some several times since that first listen, I've found that the very contrast that at first felt as if it took away from Orlando's and from the music itself is, in fact, probably a very effective method of achieving what the track demands - a piece that needs to be listened to, a poem with substance, a message whose words float just above the melody so that nothing is lost. Perhaps it's not a political piece, but it at least has the room to be. It is most likely its chief aim is not supposed to empower its listeners, but it so easily could.
Roots' jagged and forceful delivery of each word and sentence of this prose loses no sense of urgency or importance when The Maccabees' vocals chime in behind, or when Orlando goes it alone, instead they work together as a song that delivers the same eery melancholy of the No Kind Words only with an extra, added seriousness that only Roots or perhaps Chuck D could portray.
The key, I think, lies in approaching this track as a brand new entity - a new song. It's, at first, difficult to listen to it as something more than 'No Kind Words with some rapper guy over the top', but even from the slight change at the beginning of the additional guitars to Orlando's interjection around the two minute mark it is, however slightly, musically different to No Kind Words. If it's not possible to do this, then perhaps what's necessary is to give it a few listens and maybe even hark back to No Kind Words and play spot the difference. To say that it's simply NKW with Roots on top is akin to saying
Since that first listen there has been, too, a video created and released to accompany the song, which, again, takes a little time to get into, but, again, once familiar with it, stirs all the same feelings the song - if given the chance - invokes.
It may be a little naïve and cliché of me to add that the very message of the song has perhaps been lost on the reviewers who have given their, while fully entitled, seemingly uninformed and unfair opinions on this song, as If You've Got No Kind Words To Say, You Should Say Nothing More At All.
Great song
No kind words Is better but empty vessels is still an amazing song. Ps calm down on your review mate, you don't need to write 5 parragraphs.
Don't
What's the point? It doesn't fit, like cod and toffee ice cream.
Biography
Formed: Brighton, England
Genre: Alternative
Years Active: '00s
Top Albums and Songs By The Maccabees
| Name | Album | Time | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Pelican | Given to the Wild | 3:44 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
2 |
Went Away | Given to the Wild | 3:38 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
3 |
Toothpaste Kisses | Colour It In | 2:39 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
4 |
Feel to Follow | Given to the Wild | 3:29 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
5 |
About Your Dress | About Your Dress - Single | 2:16 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
6 |
Pelican | Pelican - Single | 3:44 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
7 |
No Kind Words | No Kind Words - Single | 2:57 | £0.79 | View In iTunes |
|
8 |
Went Away | Went Away - Single | 3:39 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
9 |
First Love | First Love | 3:05 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
|
10 |
Precious Time | Colour It In | 4:17 | £0.99 | View In iTunes |
- £2.49
- Genres: Alternative, Music, Rock
- Released: 05 February 2010
- ℗ 2010 Polydor Ltd. (UK)
