Single Releases 18/06/07

Kate Nash releases Foundations this week. I'm not going to lie, I'm in love with her. That said, even though I am biased Foundations is insanely catchy and really very good indeed. As I've said I can see why people might be disinclined to like her, but to them I merely repeat what I've said before; you are wrong.

I really don't like that new Editors one. Whilst not a huge fan, I did enjoy their debut album but this one sounds like they've gone ever so slightly Coldplay.

4 In The Morning by Gwen Stefani is the other song from her album (alongside that last single) that is any good, so I approve!

I can't however approve of the latest Mel C single. It's awful and leaves you in no doubt as to why she's suddenly keen to reunite the Spice Girls, even if it is for one night only (Wembley anyone?).

I wanted to like Misery Business by Paramore more than I actually do. Having said that, whilst distinctly underwhelmed by the single, I do have more love for the album (review will follow at some point) so I'm not completely down on them.

I still, three singles in, don't see the point of Just Jack.

The Bravery have changed. They're still not any good though.

I'd Wait For Life is exactly the kind of crap that record companies think is "pop" and will appeal to the Radio 2 audience. Shame on you Take That.

I'm told this Robin Thicke fella is huge in the States. I hope he never makes it over here, but no doubt he will. Lost Without U is the kind of thing that would fill up space on a Justin Timberlake album, and I don't mean that in a good way.

It will of course outsell Siobhan Donaghy's sublime So You Say by about a million to one. That's just life I'm afraid.

That new Chemical Brothers one is choooooooooooooon!

I don't really find myself warming to Shame On You by Andrea Corr. It's amazing to think that for a time about 10 years, I thought the Corrs were brilliant and now I couldn't care less about them. And that's not me being "cool" or anything, I've just grown sick of them.

Marie Miller is a super-model who likes the films of Alfred Hitchcock. I'm not even going to spoil our burgeoning relationship by listening to her new single, No Ordinary Girl...ok, I thought I better listen to it. It's not too bad. Stars have been made out of a lot less.

Ghosts - Siobhan Donaghy

Yes, that one who was in the Sugababes before anyone really liked them. And yes that one who released a rather wonderful solo album Revolution In Me which sold a mere fraction of the amount that her former band-mates did.

Still she's nothing if not a trier and here we are, three and a half years or so later and she's trying again. And if you were to believe the hype, or the self-aggrandising press, leading up to the album then it represents a left-field, experimental take on modern pop music.

"Some people say you can't make left-field pop music and be commercial,"announces Siobhan Donaghy, "and that's bullshit."

The reality is that it doesn't, unless one considers the only kind of "pop" music to be the R'n'B styled manufactured rubbish that we're deluged with these days. But hey, maybe in these homogenised times merely releasing a record that doesn't adhere to some form of pre-ordained template is experimental enough.

It may give you some idea of how the album sounds in parts to say that at times when I was listening to it I was convinced that someone had spliced in a new Kate Bush track or something of that ilk and when the album is at it's best the comparison is not necessarily a blasphemous one.

The sad thing is that the comparison can't hold up over the entire album, which is a shame. It seems as if Donaghy's intentions were to make a unique and experimental album and to me it seems as if she's pretty much nailed that. If anything though she's perhaps not been experimental enough with some of the tracks indistinguishable from the kind of singer-songwriter fare you'd expect Edith Bowman to hype to death.

Still just by listening to the first three tracks alone (Don't Give It Up -what can I say, it's grown on me-, So You Say and There's A Place) you could just about forgive her anything. Maybe it's not as "complete" an album as Revolution In Me, but it's best tracks outweigh even the best from her debut. So all things considered, roll on album three.