Make This Band Your Myspace Friend: Sally Crewe and the Sudden Moves

You probably don't know it but British expatriate Sally Crewe is possibly the best pop songwriter in the world. Hyperbole, you say? Perhaps, but give one listen to her 2003 debut Drive It Like You Stole It and tell me that I'm wrong. On that particular album Ms. Crewe was backed by Jim Eno and Britt Daniel of Spoon with Eno producing. The inventive arrangements they usually bring to Spoon's albums fit Ms Crewe's batch of short, infectiously catchy songs perfectly. A top 5 record of the decade thus far, in my opinion. Unfortunately, Eno and Daniel could not commit full time for obvious reasons and Sally got a new crew of Sudden Moves to back her on her 2005 follow-up Shortly After Take Off. While the sound was far more conventional, the songs were equally if not more impressive than those on the debut platter. I've spent many a commute to work listening to this album's "Game Over" on repeat. Sometimes I even have trouble getting past it to listen to the remainder of the album.

Following this album Sally left London to relocate to Austin, TX and picked up yet another group of Sudden Moves. With this group she went into the studio (with Jim Eno producing again) and recorded Your Nearest Exit May Be Behind You, a record that has yet to see proper release because no label seems to have enough good sense to put it out. And yet someone is putting out Dan Deacon's albums. This is truly an unjust world. But I digress... Sally has promised to put (every?) track(s) from the new record on the band's myspace page. First up though will be four songs from Drive It Like You Stole It which are on the site now. This will be followed by 4 songs from Shortly After Take Off and then the new record. So go ahead and add them to get the cliff notes version of their discography. You'll be able to become aquainted with Sally's singular brand of pop/rock magnificence rather quickly which will allow you to lie and say you knew them way back before they were cool.

Make Sally Crewe and the Sudden Moves your myspace friend.

Update: Sally posted this bulletin on myspace yesterday:

I've just upload "Your Nearest Exit May Be Behind You" - track 1 from our upcoming album, uh... "Your Nearest Exit May Be Behind You". I'll be uploading a track every day for 12 days, so go and check this one out now because it'll be gone in 24 hours...

So there is now even more incentive to befriend the band and to do it fast! Since 7 pm yesterday the song has received 13 plays. I'm hoping that the power of this blog will at least double that amount.