Perhaps Everyone DID Have It In For Eddyfink...

[PHOTO CREDIT: Stew Ruffles] We've been doing a lot of separating the performance from the songwriting lately, particularly as we revisit songs we remember enjoying on radio and mixtapes during our childhood ("Perfect Strangers" by Deep Purple, anyone? Actually, bad example -- that song is awesome). Additionally, we've come across some bands recently that have written great material who aren't presenting it exactly as we'd like. Sure, to a certain extent every band is an acquired taste, and we should just be able to give them all several ample fair shakes. But the truth of the matter is we aren't 11 years old anymore, with scads of time to spend in our rooms staring at the speakers.

Point is, while we have been significantly jazzed by certain songs of bristling British indie rock quartet Eddyfink, an act we discovered one day in July, only to read -- the same day -- that the band had just broken up, we also have some reservations. What's our beef with Eddyfink besides the fact that we didn't get a chance to follow their career at all while it was happening? Well, we think it is the vocal delivery of singer Andrew Pisanu. More use of falsetto than we care for, and occasionally a bit emotional for our tastes. Balancing that out for us, however, are some great songs.

The band's MySpace proclaims it trades in "anthems for the underdog," but we think their best material is deeper and darker than that. The video clip for the track "Do I" opens with a cartoon drawing of a shipwreck and features castaways bleeding blue blood from their mouths. And then there's the excellently titled "Will I Get Through Today Without Being Kicked In The Knickers?" [read our post about that here]. We loved the persecuted paranoia of that song, opening as it does with the ominous line "It's happening again..." before pleading "I can't take this anymore, is there a number I can call, someone to help me through it all?"

Well, imagine our surprise to hear the same white-knuckled urban agoraphobia expressed as brilliantly in a tune the now defunct Eddyfink posted to its MySpace garage more recently called "In For Me." Again, we're a little put off by the vocal delivery. More importantly the song has an absolutely bulletproof lyrical shtick. In the choruses Pisanu lists off the names of ENTIRE TOWNS that have it in for him: "...Nottingham, you know they've got it, Canterbury, they've all got it, Coventry, you know they've got it in... they've all got it in for me..." Pisanu lists TWELVE cities in the UK, and they all have it in for him. Like we said, brilliant. It's pop mixed with urban psychosis, cities as monsters with people for teeth. Incidentally, there is a video for the clip here at YouTube, but it works the funny like an old Men At Work video and kinds of turns us off; however, there are nice shots of the band performing the track spliced in as well. At their best, during its six-year-career Eddyfink was a songwriting force. We're sad to have missed the whole thing, but we're hopeful more recordings will make it to the band's MySpace. For now, here's an MP3 of "In For Me."

Eddyfink -- "In For Me" -- MySpace download
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[buy Eddyfink songs from ITunes here]