Don’t Mention The War iTunes Review!
Yaay! It’s taken a while but there’s now an official review for ‘Don’t Mention The War’ up on iTunes. Here it is:
White Town’s “Your Woman” was probably the most unlikely one-hit wonder of the 1990s, a rather brilliant mash-up of a 1930s vintage trumpet sample, old-school synth pop rhythms, and playful gender-bending lyrics.
But Jyoti Mishra knew the musical mainstream wasn’t for him and cleverly left EMI to return to the indie underground that had spawned his one-man band. Unfortunately, the resulting album, 2000’s Peek & Poke, was terribly inconsistent, and afterward, Mishra seemed to disappear entirely.
Returning to music with the self-released and completely self-created (down to shooting the cover photos and designing the packaging) Don’t Mention the War, Mishra has unexpectedly created his most consistently entertaining album so far.
The 12 songs on Don’t Mention the War (title courtesy of Fawlty Towers, but also pointedly acknowledging the extent to which a war that has lasted longer than World War II is ignored in the day-to-day life of most Brits and Americans) fuse all sides of White Town’s musical personality, from early guitar-oriented twee pop EPs to the dance beats and electronics of Women in Technology and the sometimes strident political themes of Peek & Poke.
For the purest expression of the last, note “These Are the MPs,” a set of minimalist synth washes over which Mishra recites the names of the members of Parliament who voted to authorize the Iraq war, a track that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a very early Mute Records single.
Other songs are considerably brighter in tone, even when Mishra’s lyrics tend toward the dark. Highlights include “A New Surprise,” two and a half minutes of acoustic guitars, handclaps, and winsome lyrics (”Where are the Jetsons and flying restaurants?/Where is my golf course on the moon?”) that sound like a vintage Sarah Records single circa 1991, the sweet-natured electro-pop of “I Was Trotsky’s Nun,” and the excellently titled, atmospheric instrumental “Theme for a BBC Natural History Series Starring Richard Dawkins.”
It may have taken over half a decade, but Mishra has finally conclusively proven that he deserves more attention than one fluke hit has given him.
What a lovely review! Thanks, iTunes!
You can see how accurate the review is by clicking here for iTunes or here for CD Baby! 
ROCK ‘N’ REEL, MARCH/APRIL 2007
And another corker!
WHITE TOWN, the musical vehicle for Jyoti Mishra, returns with a semi-concept collection, Don’t Mention The War. It’s a confident collection of timeless lightweight pop-rock, where the disco drums of ‘I Was Trotsky’s Nun’ rub shoulders with a wall of indie pop guitars (on ‘Hold It In’). And anyone who names a synth tune ‘Fanfare For Emma Goldman’ deserves some form of recognition.
(Rock’n'Reel Magazine)
JRS, MARCH/APRIL 2007
Wow! What a glowing review! I’m blushing…
From having a hit record a few years ago as an unsigned artist Jyoti Mishra has returned with an album of strong tracks, and protest songs. Rallying against the illegal war in Iraq (These are the MP’s) anger and defiance against the way this country is being run into the ground by the lying fools that pretend to be new labour are all informing this CD of strong tracks, and stronger words. In times of trouble it is the music that is made that defines who we are and this stunning collection of protest songs and mature music mean that White Town are going to be remembered for more than just one hit wonders, and proof that a great songwriter never leaves the stage.
(James Turner, Journal of the Classic Rock Society)
Subba-Cultcha DMTW Review
Wahey! Just got a fantastic review from Subba-Cultcha, you can read it by clicking here.
And here it is in plain-text glory:
White Town
Don’t Mention The WarBzangy Records
Don’t write him off as a one-hit wonder. Guitar-based electro from straight outta the bedsit.
I’ve always had a soft spot for bedsit artists. They owned the myspace revolution before there was one. When Jyoti Mishra hit the number one spot back when most people were worrying about whether it was cooler to like Damon or Liam, I cheered inwardly but, deep down, knew that it was a bit of a fluke.
A decade later, and a whopping 6 years after he last troubled the record-buying public, he’s back - and this time, he’s grown up a bit.
A more mature writing style and a stronger voice stand him in good stead - still recognizable, but with more depth, somehow. But where “Don’t Mention The War” really stands out is in the instrumentation.
This is where the sabbatical has clearly been put to good use. Jyoti has discovered guitars (acoustic guitars and synths are a much maligned and misunderstood combination) and some has some rather fancy new tricks up his sleeve on the mixer too.
An album by a man at ease with his talent, and doing it for love.
By Chris Merriman
This release was published on 19 Feb 2007.
Oooh, now that was a nice thing to find in my inbox this morning!
Herald Observer Feb ‘07
And here’s another review in for ‘Don’t Mention The War‘ from the Herald Observer. I like the bit about “pointless list of names” .. heh…
Pretty good!
Sunday Mercury
Again, a kind of a 3 out of 5 review…
Heh… every review seems to love/hate different tracks. This bloke like’s my ‘MPs’ track whereas Uncut thought it was a bag of wank!
I’m still loving these reviews, by the way, good or bad. I really can’t explain how happy it makes me to even be mentioned with this tiny, tiny release. I mean, it’s on iTunes, obviously, but the entire physical stock is still sitting in my hallway. I can see them from here: 700 albums in brown cardboard boxes.
It makes me soooooo happy!
Q March 2007
A slightly better one from Q but not the heavenly chorus and rows of trumpeting elephants I feel my new album deserves:
Nice Bluejam reference…
Uncut March 2007
Yaay! I’ve just got a terrible review in Uncut which has cheered me up immensely. Now, that may sound insane but, to be honest, I’m just happy that a record I made entirely by myself in my garage has got into a big, glossy mag, next to all the major-label stuff. Definitely a tiny victory for indieness!
Now the review:
Heh… it really is a stinker, innit?
First Album Review!
Woohoo! Got the first (and possibly the last, considering the non-promotion I’m doing) album review for ‘Don’t Mention The War.’ It’s off the lovely Aversion.com website and you can read it by clicking here.
Four out of five, motherfuckers! 
Think Matt Schild must be on some baad brown acid? Click here to listen to clips yourself and then you can fire off outraged emails at him, pointing out exactly how he’s barmy.
Onion AV Club
Left-field success couldn’t have happened to a more deserving artist than Jyoti Mishra. As the sole member of White Town, the indie stalwart sensibly signed a one-shot contract with EMI to exploit his extremely catchy synth-pop. Little did he expect that “Your Woman” and the album Women In Technology would become such big hits, but, having done far better than anyone could have predicted, Mishra put his money in the bank and jumped ship. Or maybe he was pushed.
In any case, White Town’s new Peek & Poke finds Mishra back on Parasol, the independent label that released his first recordings. Proving that nothing can quite match a major-label marketing push, Peek & Poke doesn’t seem on track to replicate its predecessor’s success, but it’s got just as much to offer.
Sticking to his formula of looped synth hooks and drum machines, as well as Sarah Records-styled low-key pop, Mishra illustrates that home recording can result in more than just mushy fuzz. Sharp both musically and lyrically, these songs have a way of sneaking into the subconscious. “Another Lover,” “Every Second Counts,” and “Duplicate” skate by on cool electro melodies and robotic funk beats, while “Why I Hate Drugs,” “In My Head,” and “I’m Alone” are gently guitar-driven.
Then there’s the sublime trip-hop perfection of “She Left For Paris,” a charmer in any context. But the real conceptual coup is “Excerpts From An Essay,” a Kraftwerk-esque epic that features a club-ready beat and a disembodied synthetic vocal intoning an academic treatise on the ideological and sociological ramifications of hip-hop. Some dismiss machine music as too cold, but in the hands of Mishra, it’s simply cool. - Joshua Klein
