Something for Kate – ‘The Futurist’
It’s the oldest trick in the record label book: release a Best Of album by one of your top selling artists – in this case, Something for Kate – and tack on a new song so all the die-hard fans rush out to buy it.
The problem is, in the day of iTunes, this method doesn’t work, nor do people actually buy Best Ofs anymore. Firstly, they can just purchase the new song for $1.69 (that’s how much a song costs off iTunes in Australia), and secondly, they can buy their favourite songs and create their own Best of anyway.
So the legendary Victorian three-piece have bandied together some of their best songs (which, to be honest, is a hard task, but I guess that’s why there’s 2 discs) as well as a new song, ‘The Futurist’, and thus we have The Murmur Years.
Sydney’s sultry singer-songwriter Bertie Blackman… whoa, alliteration ahoy… contributes some barely-audible vocals to a track that really isn’t one of Something for Kate’s best, but my guess is that it was just a song they had lying around that they recorded just for the hell of the Best Of. It kinda sounds like Bruce Springsteen after a severe bout of laryngitis. The song lacks any spark, and Paul Dempsey has sounded a lot better than this. Gone is the dynamic ebb and flow of prior SFK tunes, as is the rich melodies.
If this is your first listen to Something For Kate, make sure you check out their older material – anything off Beautiful Sharks and Echolalia is highly recommended – before you make a decision.
http://www.somethingforkate.com/
http://www.myspace.com/somethingforkate
August 29, 2007 8:38 pm
Dude before me posting, if you will take the time to look at the songs that are on there, its not what you would call another best of, its a collection of a 10 year success and is not full of singles….
The song headlining it is something fresh so there we have it.
28 Aug 2007
Something For Kate
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Music
Something For Kate rocks, so much you can relate to, the diversity, to the early days of the lead singer singing the more gritty rawer songs that not alot of the world would know them for, unless they were fans back then.
No most of the world discovered them more when they went the so called mainstream with the hit Monsters, who could forget that one, but they had two albums before that& and EP, and had been on compilations such as homebake and others i can’t recall at the moment.
But i wouldn’t say they went on to be stuffed around by becoming more noticed, and hey all the live gigs and exposure was to be expected and why not, they had really earned it, but true to the feel of their music, they continued to deal with all sorts of issues and the next few albums reflected that, not to mention a collection of B sides&rarities just came out before Desert Lights, the one that was spoken about as S4Kate being raw and urgent,, going back to their roots a bit, and it was a huge hit and the people that saw them on that tour can profess to how the change of direction was loved right away…
To test those waters though Cigarettes & Suitcases was put out and was impressive, and hearing it live at the POW on Paul’s own 30th birthday last year in May and some of the new songs coming was sweet as.
I will also have to say the album covers, art has always fascinated me with it all, and the dvd that was brought out was so wicked.
Seeing them in concert twice here in TAS down Launnie, and once over in VIC at the POW was just an amazing experience, here we have a band that sounds so good live, and of course i knew that they would anyhow, since they started off as a live band, unlike others that just sound so damn crap.
Unfortunately they don’t come to TAS that much and thats totally understandable and to be expected, but theres a steady following here.
I personally got really hooked around Echolalia, pumping that in my small flat after coming back from TAFE, they were the days….
But i did know of the songs before hand, Beautiful Sharks springs to mind, and of course Old Pictures which was on the Dawson’s Creek Soundtrack and im sure of some others from the first album Elsewhere for 8 minutes.
So once i got more into them, i sought out to get earlier albums and eventually laid my hands on them at really good prices.
Funny that a few of my albums have been bought by others. Beautiful Sharks by a girlfriend at the time. Elsewhere for 8 Minutes from Red Hot CDS, thanks heaps!!!!!
The day i scored the reissue of the EP- Q&A with Dean Martin and heard it, i was like wow, so much more earlier energy, and grabbing the A Diversion DVD all at the same time was a damn good day, thanks SANITY in Devonport ahha!!!!
As well as that i do have two tshirts, good quality too, as u wont catch me buying a $30 tshirt unless its something special ahah.
SO here i am again my birthday gone on the 24th of this month and having received the Best of from a friend, being totally gob smacked when they handed it to me for my birthday, remembering some fond memories.
So many thanks Paul, Clint, Stephanie & Take care always
Oh yea and thanks Clint for after the show when in Launceston last year my girlfriend at the time knocked on your door at the Saloon&wanted to party, thanks for being nice to her!!!
We were lucky to see you S4Kate all beforehand practicing as we heard you from our hotel room, yep we travelled on the bus to see you and stayed over night, like others would have from the north west, and we had dinner, and was a few tables in front of you, but nah we wasn’t gunna disturb your meal,no way!!!
HA u neva know may serve one of you’s one day, as am into the Hospitality Industry, especially if i do move to Vic.
Until that possibility il see you at another show that i manage to get to..
Just my thoughts and tribute to you so heres to
Something For Kate The Murmur Years
The Best Of Something For Kate 1996 – 2007
UPDATE:
I didn’t put in some finer detail, as i was sayn that most of my albums were brought by other ppl, as i was talking at the time more about the earlier ones, i failed to remember someone that rocked my world in many ways……..
Thought i betta mention that Desert Lights was bought last year for my birthday by someone special at that time who knows who they are, just in case they eva read this, as they went out of their way to obtain a Limited Edition copy, not just the normal one, thou that woulda been fine indeed…
They blew me away with getting it for me too, so i was extremely stoked, so thanks you know who you are, il remember unwrapping and playing it everywhere for so long all the time!!!
Its also sentimental to me due to we both shared the concert that was to do with that album, and it was her first S4Kate concert!!!
There you go i remembered you, so no bitching now LOL!!!
June 22, 2008 3:50 pm
good on ya
January 11, 2013 6:06 pm
So how many songs have you written? : )