Ginger - Ten (Two)

Ginger of The Wildhearts has just recently put out a compilation album that covers the first ten years of his solo work, aptly called Ten. Now, I’ll be honest. Despite being a massive Wildhearts fan, I’ve never properly gotten around to listening to Ginger’s solo output. You can’t blame me when there’s such of a wealth of stellar Wildhearts material to work through. However, as a companion to Ten, Ginger and co have picked an additional ten tracks that wouldn’t fit the compilation. Furthermore, they're being offered online for free. How delightful. If, like me, you simply haven’t had a chance to give Ginger’s solo material a fair shake, Ten (Two) provides an exemplary opportunity to do so. Expect something a bit more mellow and arguably more pop-oriented than The Wildhearts, but no less infectiously catchy. Go on, how often is it you get good music for free (...without breaking the law)?

Download Ten (Two) at http://gingerwildheart.bandcamp.com

The Wildhearts - Chutzpah! Jnr

When it comes to being prolific, few bands rival The Wildhearts’ ability to continually put out singles, albums and EPs. Hot on the heels of their latest release Chutzpah! comes a tour-only CD loaded with eight bonus tracks from the same sessions. Anyone who has followed the Hearts’ extensive release of singles will be well aware that the B-sides and unreleased tracks from their albums are not a result of a lack of quality, with some of the band’s best and most famous tracks never seeing release on an album. In this case, the B-sides that compose Chutzpah! Jnr are no different. Cuts like ‘The Snake, The Lion, The Monkey and The Spider’ and ‘All That Zen’ are as good as anything on Chutzpah!, boasting thumping riffs, slick production and hooks galore. Unsurprisingly, everything has quite a similar style to the ‘father CD’ of Chutpzah!, the main exception being ‘Vernix’ which seems to be an identity crisis in musical form (and is possibly this compilation’s only dip due its very mish-mashed stylings). However, tracks such as ‘Under The Waves’ are amongst some of song-writer Ginger’s best, boasting an ethereal and restrained quality rare to most Wildhearts tracks.

If this release had two or three more tracks, it would certainly be worthy of being the next Wildhearts album. However, only being around 26 minutes, it makes a nice little collectible bonus for those able to pick it up.