Standard Fare
Standard Fare is an indie power-pop trio from Sheffield, England. They formed in 2005, and didn’t really get noticed until they sent one of their singles directly to a BBC Radio presenter. It worked, as their single got airplay, and they were invited to play a gig as part of a showcase. After that, they started to gain a following, and their 2010 debut record The Noyelle Beat turned even more heads.
The band released their second album Out of Sight, Out of Town in December of 2011 in the UK, and in January of 2012 here in the States. That album was met with warm reviews, but not quite the glowing ones that The Noyelle Beat got.
I didn’t even know about this album until it showed up on a “don’t forget about all of these great 2012 releases” list that I got in the mail sack a couple of weeks ago.
It didn’t take me long to figure out that I like this band a lot, and for the same reasons that I like London indie pop band Evans The Death. Actually, when I was listening to this album for the first time, I had to look down a couple of times to make sure that it wasn’t Evans The Death.
A little bit of research told me that the band got its name when singer Emma Kupa spotted a sign on a bus in Newcastle. Here in the states, we say “standard fare” to mean something that is routine or ordinary. It turns out that it has a quite different meaning in the UK. There, “standard fare” is a severe fine issued to someone who is caught riding a city bus without first buying a ticket. I think the “standard fare” might be as much as ten times what a ticket would have cost.
Tonight’s song is the first song from the new album.
“The Look of Lust” by Standard Fare
I’m a big fan of the gear change at 0:56 and again at 1:57. Then another couple of strange gear shifts in the last 50 seconds of the song. They’re not sudden or jarring, and nothing that will leave you slackjawed, but I enjoy those little changes.
I’m also a fan of this:
Lightning bursts through my ribcage when we’re close
Push me against the wall as soon as we get home
There’s nothing left to ask for
Nothing left to ask for
Steamy. Steamy as all get-out.
You can buy Out of Sight, Out of Town directly from the band’s web store here.
this is that song 
December 25th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
My second favorite album of the year. It wasn’t really released in the UK last year. They had pre-orders in early December which you could get the download immediately. The UK CD and vinyl didn’t arrive at my doorstep until almost February. There is a 2011 date on the discs, but the release was pushed. It was supposed to come out in November originally.