Surprised there isn't already a thread on these as they seem all set to be superhuge or a mega costly failure. Popjustice loves them. Very stylized (black/white, silly priest garb + scarf / white shirt + braces). Rumoured to have paid a huge advance by Sony. David Sneddon apparently worked on their debut. Dance music for depressives or something. Used to be a very different animal: the glitzy glammed up Dave-Gahan channelling Daggers.
The whole marketing behind them is irritating in how it's attempting to forcibly recreate a sense of a 'natural buzz', though there's clearly a massive amount of money and hype behind them. 'Wonderful Life' is nice enough but the current single 'Better Than Love' has a godawful droney moany chorus (though the pre-chorus bit is grrreat). Much hype, banner ads and other costly promo yet it only just hit #50 in the UK charts.
Good interview with them on PJ: http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4753&Itemid=9
New single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn8tBgI1BVQ
Old single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XClf_8AKF4E
― s.rose, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 20:22 (thirteen years ago) link
Some of the old Daggers stuff wasn't bad, a track called 'After Midnight' was good but would likely sound quite dated now in a mid-00s cokey-Killersy way. Can't find any trace online, annoyingly.
Discussing them with a friend just now who said "There's a good article to be written on how Daggers, a little-interest pop band, reinvented itself and garnered critical praise and major label bids by pitching themselves in the most obtuse, un-public-friendly way possible." That couldn't be said about say, Delphic or any of the other indie-band reinventions of the past few years. The whole cod-Godard look is quite refreshing and different, I just find it a bit too grim and miserable to really get behind.
Can't help loving quotes like this, mind:
“I’ve always dressed smart but it kind of heightened a bit, there was a period about a year ago where we were at the end of our tether. We were on the dole, Adam was homeless, moved in my house, it got really bad. It kind of heightens itself when you’ve got nothing. To dress smart makes you feel important, you can look the world in the face and people take note of you.”
An admirable Dickon Edwards/Kevin Rowland attitude in that last line.
― s.rose, Thursday, 3 June 2010 19:04 (thirteen years ago) link
three months pass...
one month passes...
They're not as good as anyone wants them to be, are they?
― djh, Saturday, 27 November 2010 17:59 (thirteen years ago) link