Singles

Nizlopi - Start Beginning

Jorge Costa 19/03/2008

Rating: 2.5/5

Hurrah for walking around in a bubble! Having never heard of
Nizlopi before this weekend, I apologise if this review sounds like it is the result of a band making their first release. So, after enduring the shocked and confused looks of friends who wondered just how I managed to miss the 'JCB Song' for nearly three years, it was my turn to be rather bemused. While, sure, it's a cute song with an even cuter video, its unhurried tempo and unexceptional melody just makes me wonder at was going on in the world at the time that made five hundred thousand Europeans pick up a copy?

With 'Start Beginning', the first single to come from their
second album, Nizlopi seem like they are trying to emulate this success for a second time. Like 'JCB', it's a breezy and simple acoustic track with another cute video whose artistic merits, again, supersede those of the song that it is marketing. Luke Concannon sings about springtime love and his rich and soulful vocals are the best thing in a track in which nearly every other element seems included only to increase that "aww!" factor.

John James Parker's beatboxing feels particularly incongruous while the gospel choir that comes in during the song's climax fails to suffuse the track with the uplift that it so wants to stir within you. The result makes 'Start Beginning' sound forced and as passable as that tractor song.