About, ooh, two and half years back (if peoples' minds can still wander back as far as that), W&H seriously bigged up a single by Belgian band MILLIONAIRE. Said band featured ex-members of cool Belgique culties Deus and were touring to promote said single ("Champagne") and then-current album "Outside The Simian Flock" with the influential Queens Of The Stone Age.
Curiously, nothing much seemed to happen for these guys after that seismic touring experience, but obviously Millionaire have become a long-term love affair for QOTSA frontman Josh Homme as he's remained on board to produce this with long-term "Desert Sessions" cohort Alain Johannes. And, judging by the searing power of "We Don't Live There Anymore", Homme's loyalty certainly wasn't misplaced.
Llike "Champagne", "We Don't Live There Anymore" is a prowling, menacing slice of feral intent. It's a bass-heavy, swirling ball of confusion with the drums going off like cannon fire and the guitars set to stun. Tim Vanhamel's vocals are treated and claustrophobically nasty; the curious disco counterpoint anthem at the chorus merely ups the menacing ante and they've (rightly) held onto the Ubu-ish synth misinformation which was a feature of "Champagne."
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B-side "For A Maid" ain't no slouch, neither. OK, its' heavy, sludgy Beefheart-meets-"Weird Chill"-era Mark Lanegan feel doesn't quite scale the heights of the A-side, but it's still queasy and lurching and chilly enough to captivate and surely reinforces the fact Millionaire are dark horses worthy of a flutter
It's been a long time coming, then, but Millionaire are back in the race. They're already contenders in rock's creative rich list and may yet have it in them to shift the units the commercial aspects of their name aspire to. For once, they might be a band who don't renege on their artistic IOUs.
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