Monday, February 05, 2007

Single Releases 05/02/07

What a special week we have this week. For, finally, Now Listen by Shakin Stevens gets its release. Or does it? Knowing how it's gone so far it probably by now has been put back to June or something. Anyway, its a classic slice of Shaky. What more can I possibly say.

Giddy Stratospheres gets a release from the Long Blondes this week as well. I love the Long Blondes and this is yet another superb track from them. I also love Kate Jackson, and she looks very nice indeed in the video. Not that that kind of thing makes any difference of course...

I dol like Duke Special but I have to admit that whilst he is a knock out proposition live, for me he never quite captures that on his records. Freewheel is no exception. It's good, and has a simply beautiful chorus, but never quite takes off in the way it threatens to. I hope he gets some good success from it though.

The irony about The Gossip is that if Beth Ditto walked past the cool critics in the street then rather than labelling her the coolest thing alive they'd probably be sniggering into their half fat lattes. Those concerns aside, Jealous Girls is a decent song, albeit one that doesn't grab me the way previous singles have.

Perhaps appropriately we come to the Magic Numbers. (And i'm not being "fattist" here - i'm hardly a size zero myself). Their "lack of image" is in fact an image in itself, but no matter about all that - I just can't get into the Magic Numbers at all. In my opinion their debut album was totally overrated and things haven't improved for me with anything I've heard off their second. This Is A Song doesn't change my opinion one little bit.

Cute Is What We Aim For release Newport Living this week and it's your typical slice of American emo-pop which probably sounds a whole lot better if the OC isn't just a show that they used to show on Channel 4 on Sunday mornings to you. Still there is a bitter lyrical edge to this that I quite like.

Boy George has long since slipped down to being a mere caricature but occasionally he can still prove that to some extent he still has "it". His collaboration with Amanda Ghost aims to be one of those occasions but doesn't quite pull it off. But that's life.

Still give me George over Jessica Simpson any day. Totally vapid and pointless. Whether I mean the song A Public Affair or the lady herself is up to you.

No Simon Webbe, my soul pleads for you! I'll give you a bit of credit though, you're better than Lemarr. It's just that everything you've done since going solo has basically been the same thing.

If I Could Read Your Mind is better than seeing Clinic live ever suggested they could be. It's still not exactly good but it's eerie David Lynch style vibe does at least rescue it from being absolutely rubbish.

I pretty much despaired when I heard It's Not Ok by The Enemy. You do kind of hope when a band is hyped so much that you might find yourself enjoying their first major release. I didn't. It's derivative and those people who suggest that The Enemy are channeling the spirit of the Sex Pistols should remember that they were 99% hype as well.

And I almost forget the rather wonderful Kate Nash. Double A-Side with Caroline's A Victim and Birds. Caroline's A Victim is a rather strange/brave choice as a lead single really although it should do enough to derail some of the "new Lily Allen" posturings that seem to be following her about. Birds is wonderful though and it won't be long before you'll be hearing even more about her.

No comments: