The Spinto Band: “Oh Mandy”
It seems nigh impossible that the union of a simplistic, looping mandolin progression and catchy falsetto’d vocals could yield one of the absolute best songs of the year, but fuck if that isn’t exactly what’s happened here with the Spinto Band’s “Oh Mandy”. Originally released in 2005 on the band’s Nice And Nicely Done LP and criminally slept on by yours truly, it was released as a single in the UK on indie label Stolen Transmission last July, promptly thrusting itself into the forefront of my consciousness and opening my eyes to its brilliance. Subsequently, “Oh Mandy” was met with widespread critical acclaim and the Spinto Band have seen their popularity in the UK eclipse their US success in only a matter of months.
Back to the song, though, which remains one of the essential tracks of the last two years despite (or possibly because of) the fact that there’s nothing even remotely “now” about it. There’s a surprising intensity about it as well - lead singer Nick Krill’s vocals are bursting at the seams with emotion as he races to get each verse out before drummer Jeff Hobson delivers the decisive cymbal crash that punctuates each line. The mandolicious (sorry) verses continue to snowball in intensity until Krill belts out his climactic “so I can finally hear you scream!” lyric and that relentlessly addictive “Oh Mandy” refrain comes around again, announced by a sprightly keyboard outburst, and takes everything to new heights. The song continues like this, with those pristine mandolin riffs and those candy-coated keyboard flourishes, flooding your aural pleasure centers and ceaselessly justifying itself as one of the best tracks of the year.
MP3s:
“Oh Mandy” - The Spinto Band ((highly recommended))
“Karen + Mandy” (Remix by Mark Eklund + Ollie Tamale) - The Spinto Band
While the remix above, one of the single’s official B-sides, offers an interesting, if unremarkable, reworking of the original, the best “Mandy”-related remix has to come courtesy of DJ Sunderland. DJ Sunderland takes the aforementioned two best parts of the song - the mandolin riff and those falsetto verses - and transposes them over the (super)massive beat of Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole”, making for an improbable but altogether awesome mash up.
Bonus MP3: “Supermassive Mandy” (The Spinto Band vs. Muse) - DJ Sunderland
Finally, it doesn’t hurt that this song has one of the year’s best music videos behind it; keep an eye out for it on my upcoming Top 50 Videos of 2006 list (there it’s official - coming soon).