Jack Peñate: 'Be The One'

Despite a loyal band of supposedly hipster followers, it's probably fair to say that Jack Peñate has inspired as much antipathy as adoration in his short career. The singles from his first album Matinee were half a step away from what the broadsheets like to call "landfill indie", but only half a step. And 'Tonight's Today', the lead single from his upcoming second album, should have been his most irritating yet. On it, Peñate swapped his fourth-hand Clash rhythms and post-Libertines skiffle for something that sounded like a scruffy guitarist trying to play early '90s rave. Incredibly though, it just about worked.

Just as surprisingly, follow-up 'Be The One' repeats the trick. It kicks off with a blast of brass that fortunately sounds nothing like the ersatz soul of some of his contemporaries, before slipping into the same hands-in-the-air crossover groove as its predecessor. Where he once sang obnoxious couplets about Waterloo Station and the "Big Smoke", the new Peñate has a much better line in irresistibly daft rhymes ("I'll follow you for any cause, I'll fight for you in any wars, And all to say that I am yours"). Proof perhaps, that everyone deserves a second chance.


> Click here to watch the 'Be The One' video