Single Releases 14/05/07

If your only touch with "new" music is Edith Bowman you might well think that the "new" single by CSS is rather good. If you actually have a clue you'll of course have heard Lets Make Love And Listen To Death From Above at least 12 months ago. Still, lets not be too damning. It may be on about it's 37th re-release, but it is still a fantastic pop tune.

I've also been raving about Candi Payne for ages too; she was, pray remember, one of my "tips" for 2007. For the moment we'll ignore the fact that most of my tips have already shown absolutely no suggestion of making it and concentrate that on the back of her performance on Jools Holland last week she's on the verge of cracking it. I Wish I Could Have Loved You More is another reason why she's going to make it.

Alternatively if Lucie Silvas' 2nd album was going to repeat her success of the first time around then it surely would have done by now. Place To Hide will make no difference to that fact.

Maroon 5, on the other hand, are about to hit the stratosphere again. In fact they'll be cracking it on the Timberlake level if Makes Me Wonder is anything to go by.

I'm getting less and less convinced by Sophie Ellis Bextor with every single. Me And My Imagination isn't very good really.

Still she's better than either BWO (who are just plain weird, despite what Popjustice might try to claim otherwise) or Biffy Clyro. I'd espouse more on the latter, but that would bring us back to Edith Bowman again, and I've had more than enough of her for one day.

The Other Side - Lucie Silvas

I can take or leave Lucie Silvas if I'm being honest. I wasn't exactly thrilled by her debut album but did find that live she was an nice, if slightly dull, evening's entertainment.

And that last comment just about sums up the new offering from her, The Other Side.

Record company shenanigans, and a complete lack of success for a single release, meant that this album sat on the shelf until this month when at one point it was scheduled to hit the stores well before the end of 2006. What makes this even more baffling is that the delayed release was met with little, or no, fanfare and pretty quietly made it's way into shops.

It's by no means a dreadful album. Silvas has the voice, and she has genuine song-writing skills and there are few tracks that you would willfully skip over as you listened to the album. That said, there are just as few tracks that would instantly have you grabbing for the repeat button.

If you've heard anything by Silvas you'll know what you're getting on this collection. And if you liked her debut offering you will probably find much to enjoy here. My favourites were Already Gone, which highlights Silvas' best features...namely her voice and her piano playing, and Something About You.

Like I said though, too little of the rest stands out, although its never less than listenable. Having heard the album though I can understand why Silvas may well get lost in the shuffle. Whilst competent she somewhat lags behind the likes of Nerina Pallot and KT Tunstall. You could do worse than listen to this album, but you could also do a hell of a lot better.