UK Single Release 09/07/07

Well it's nice to see Bat For Lashes' What's A Girl To Do get another release. Probably the best track off the album and lets hope we get some nice success for it this time around (not that I'm holding my breath sadly).

I'm not too keen on that new Arctic Monkeys one. It's not bad, but not one of the better tracks off the album.

Wouldn't you believe it. Mere days after playing Live Earth, Razorlight are cashing in with a single release. Never in a million years will you find me saying anything other than that being a totally random coincidence.

Nerina Pallot keeps the wolves from the door this week with a cover of Steeley Dan's Peg...with Richard X at the production helm nonetheless! It's a good effort. I could of course compare this to not wanting "pop" remixes of songs of a certain other album but that would be me being churlish. And anyway folks, it's not selling out. There is nothing wrong with selling records.

Sarah Nixey releases her Human League cover The Black Hit Of Space this week as well. I like this, as readers of my album review will already be aware,

Am I the only one who doesn't see the point of Bloc Party anymore?

And Travis? Yet another dull single in Selfish Jean...thanks boys.

My Chemical Romance seem to keep getting worse as well. I know you might not have thought that possible, but The Teenagers certainly seems to point to that fact.

Sing, Memory - Sarah Nixey

"This is Sarah Nixey talking" is hardly the most exciting of opening gambits to an album on paper, but within ten seconds of putting the CD into your player it immediately draws you in her crisp, English diction proving to be a strength, not a novelty gimmick. (Incidentally the vocals remind me a lot of Natasha "Bat For Lashes" Khan).

What is clear is that for all the "art" that Nixey brings to any project (erstwhile of Black Box Recorder) she's acutely aware that in pop music its the tunes that matter.

Strangelove and The Collector are two great singles but are only the tip of the iceberg. The likes of Nothing On Earth, Hotel Room and Masquerade (the latter of which may be the standout track) are also sublime and leave a lasting impression. Nixey even manages a winner with her cover of the Human League's The Black Hit Of Space.

If I'm being critical, at 15 tracks (albeit with two spoken interludes) it is perhaps a tad too long and could well have benefited from a couple of omissions. Having said that, that is a minor criticism at worst.

Those of you who canonise Sophie Ellis Bextor as the arch queen of detached disco pop should listen to this to find out just how wrong you really are. Those who see Siobhan Donaghy as the shining light of proper pop music should listen to this and see how "commercial" concerns can be married successfully with catchy tunes. Quite simply, this is sublime.