LATER...with Jools Holland (11/04/2008 - Series 32, Show 2)

A much better show (or shows) this week mainly due to the sensible choice of artists and the great performances. Also the dual show thing worked well this time.

Tuesday Live Set

• The Kooks - Always Where I Need To Be
• Goldfrapp - Happiness
• Yeasayer - 2080
• Luke Pritchard from The Kooks (Chat with JH)
• Natty - Cold Town
• Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly
• Goldfrapp - A&E
• The Kooks - Mr. Maker

Friday Show

• Goldfrapp - Happiness
• The Kooks - Always Where I Need To Be
• Yeasayer - 2080
• Luke & Paul from The Kooks (Chat with JH)
• Dawn Kinnard - One Little Step Away
• Natty - Coloured Souls
• Goldfrapp - Caravan Girl
• Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (Chat with JH)
• The Kooks - Sway
• Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly
• Yeasayer - Sunrise
• Dawn Kinnard with Ed Harcourt - Clear The Way
• Goldfrapp - A&E
• Natty - July
• The Kooks - Do You Wanna

A much better line-up of artists with Goldfrapp and Yeasayer leading the way this week. Goldfrapp began the Friday show with current single Happiness (stealing the mantle from The Kooks), one of the more straightforward songs from new album Seventh Tree. Underneath the swathe of vocal production, Allison Goldfrapp’s voice is superb and she is a vision of beauty. Caravan Girl was even better, cumulating with a wonderful choral ending enhanced by the backing singers. A&E is also great but worked better on the Tuesday when it followed Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

Yeasayer, who were declared by The Kooks as their new favourite band, are amazing live. The manic lead singer is like a man possessed delivering a fantastic vocal range. They stomped through 2080 and Sunrise, both full of tribal rhythms, bass and electronica. The Kooks themselves were a bit of a disappointment in the full show. They seemed to relish the ’live’ experience much more, and the two Friday songs Sway and Do You Wanna pushed the band too far into sleazy rock, the former is a bit too Coldplay with heavy guitars. Always Where I Need To Be and Mr. Maker are better examples of their sound and style. This doesn’t bode well for the new album. They (singer Luke on the Tuesday then with Paul on Friday) chatted uneasily with JH about their influences and The Rolling Stones. The tobacco packet in Luke’s top pocket was either a bold pro-choice political statement or a lame attempt to look cool. You decide.

Glen Hansard (ex-The Frames) and Marketa Irglova joined Jools to perform their Oscar winning song Falling Slowly from the film Once. It is a great performance and a good song. If you are new to the pair, you only understand the full extent of the achievement on the Friday show, discovering that they also starred in the film as the two main characters.

The line-up was completed by three songs by London singer Natty and Dawn Kinnard from the US. For Natty, Cold Town on Tuesday’s show worked better than Coloured Souls and July. He sounds like Marley singing Jack Johnson covers. Kinnard delivered he unique folk-goth minimalism and was joined by Ed Harcourt for Clear The Way which is much better than the disjointed One Little Step Away.

The arrangement in the Tuesday show of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova followed by A&E by Goldfrapp is inspired and sadly missing from the Friday show. It is a real highpoint as the two songs blend together which doesn’t happen in the full set. Also for the first time, the same band or artist hasn’t started and ended the show - a strange move.

One other point of note is how ‘slack’ Jools is getting in terms of his presenting - messing up his lines, mispronouncing names, etc. He has a unique charm and style but it gets very annoying when he looks unprofessional and a bit bemused all the time. It’s a shame. Maybe he just had an off night which is more than can be said about the musicians who were largely on top form. Superb stuff.