Out of Breath December 10, 2007

Right, I have a confession to make. I’ve only listened to the album that I’m supposed to be reviewing this week once, just now. This is down to pure laziness and musical snobbery: I hold my hands up. I have nothing against Shayne Ward per se, but I can’t say I was enthralled by the prospect of listening to a whole album by him. Sorry!

 Anyway, my first impressions of his second CD, ‘Breathless’, are as follows. First single ‘No U Hang Up’ is pretty classy, I have to say. We like grown up, sexy Shayne Ward – even if it is a blatant ploy to cement that image of the ‘British Justin Timberlake’ which Louis Walsh keeps going on about. Second single and title song ‘Breathless’ continues in pretty much the same vein, though he’s sounding a bit more Daniel Bedingfield here. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not. Next up is ‘If That’s OK with You’, which you should skip right through if you want to keep your sanity. Seriously, it’s awful. Boy was I glad when ‘No U Hang Up’ replaced it as the lead single!

 ’Damaged’ comes on with the now-familiar high pitched squeal, followed by a reggae-inflected, sunny beat that’s not too hard to like. So far, so good. ‘Stand By Your Side’ is, rather surprisingly, a mature sounding belter with an orchestra and gospel choir added for good measure, featuring the melody from George Michael’s Father Figure. I like it!

 ’Melt The Snow’ is probably meant to be Shayne Ward’s attempt at a Christmas hit, complete with lyrics about being cold and all alone in the winter. By now the falsetto vocals are too annoying to ignore. ‘Tangled Up’ is a cheesy disco ditty that really reminds me of something that that Scouse boyband 911 released in the late 90’s: perhaps it was originally a failed demo by them! ‘Just Be Good To Me’ is, unbelievably, an actual cover of the 80’s SOS Band/Beats International classic. Dare he tread where such talent has gone before? Sounding more like the Beats International version, it isn’t actually that bad, and well worth a listen, but it’s hard to see what the point of it is, really. If a cover version is the best song on an album full of originals, then something is clearly amiss here.

 When ‘Tell Him’, the final song on the album arrives, I feel a little exhausted of trying to love something about ‘Breathless’. That said, the Tchaikovsky arrangement in use on this song’s backing track is fairly interesting, as are the hip hop-esque lyrics – finally, a song that could make the Justin Timberlake comparison deserved.

 I don’t know, maybe I’ve been hard on poor old Shayne. Maybe I’m tired. After one listen, I won’t completely dismiss ‘Breathless’ as filler. There were some highlights, certainly more than can be said for Leona Lewis’ recent offering ‘Spirit’ which had no chance of living up to all its abominable hype. I may not listen to ‘Breathless’ a second time, but I am prepared to give it 6 out of 10. He is sexy, after all.

Girl power December 2, 2007

Hello again! This week it’s all about the girls, again, as we review two big new albums by Kylie and the Sugababes. Important questions to be answered: is Kylie back on form after her recent personal struggles? And can the ’babes pull off yet another hit album? All will be revealed now… 

Kylie Minogue – X

Unbelievably, it’s been four years since Kylie’s last studio album, and in a career spanning twenty years, this is only her tenth (hence the name). Though we all know why she’s been away for four years (which I don’t think would be appropriate for discussion here), four years feels like a heck of a long time, and for this reason alone any new Kylie album was bound to be a major event in the world of pop. As soon as the press release about X went out, I’m sure many of us couldn’t stop ourselves from counting the minutes until November 26th. I know I couldn’t!

First single ‘2 hearts’ is, let’s face it, a cracking opener. It’s quite comforting to hear a performer who’s been around for a long time be daring and confident at the same time. The comparisons to Goldfrapp are obvious and, I daresay, a little lazy. Yes, it’s heavily influenced by glamrock, but I think it’s poppy enough to become a true Kylie classic. There are, pleasingly, quite a few Kylie classics waiting in the wings on this album. Fade To Grey-influenced ‘Like A Drug’ sets an electronic disco tone; ‘Sensitized’ takes Kylie right back to her Confide In Me era, which is extremely thrilling to hear; upcoming single ‘Wow’ is like Love At First Sight times 10. With X Kylie has definitely gone back to the uplifting, camp disco sound of Light Years and Fever that only she does really well.

 The move away from the more instrumental, R’n'B sound of Body Language is surprisingly welcome, although track no.12, ‘Nu-di-ty’, is Kylie at her minimal, breathy best. It’s not instantly easy on the ear, and it is rather a reminder that when Kylie is stripped of the camp showtunes, there isn’t much to her singing voice. The heavy use of vocoders on ‘Speakerphone’ doesn’t help matters here.

 Above all, though, X could easily be claimed as Kylie’s return to form. The formula hasn’t been messed with too much, but it has been pushed forward just enough to keep it up to date. It’s also good to hear the pace slowed down a bit on ‘No More Rain’, ‘All I See’ and final track ‘Cosmic’; we like serious Kylie (as long as she’s not too serious!)

 I hereby declare this album an 8 out of 10. Enjoy!

Sugababes – Change

They’re an easy target for jokes these days, given the high profile line-up changes that they’ve seen over the years, but with the release of ‘Change’ they’ve now clocked up as many studio albums as they’ve had members, and in my book that’s pretty impressive for a group of women all under the age of 25. What’s also good about this album is that it is the first to entirely feature the vocals of newest member Amelle, who seems to better fill the shoes of Mutya every day.

It gets off to such a promising start. Their biggest hit to date, ‘About You Now’ is about as rocky as bubblegum pop gets; the mesh of drum ‘n’ bassy beats with heavy bass guitars is already a 2007 classic. ‘Never Gonna Dance Again’ is not, thankfully, an updated version of Careless Whisper, it’s just a dancey Sugababes-by-numbers tune that would probably go down very well on a dancefloor in Macclesfield on Friday night. Other album highlights include ‘Back Down’, possibly the sexiest ‘babes track to date, which is actually pretty darn good; and ‘3 Spoons of Suga’, another funky floorfiller that mixes psychedelic beats with dirty trombones and a killer bassline.

 Otherwise, it’s all a bit downhill from there. Next single, ‘Change’, is all right; it hardly catches the ear though, mainly because it has no melody. ‘Back When’ is too sickly sweet to be interesting; ‘Mended By You’ is a bit too Bleeding Love for my liking, and ‘Open The Door’ sounds scarily like Lutricia McNeal’s Ain’t That Just The Way, not in a good way either.

 I would love to have been more enthralled by this album, but I wasn’t. So for that reason I’m giving it 5 out of 10. I’m sorry, Sugababes, but you will really have to try harder next time.

In TV this week I’ve been avidly following the progress of ‘I’m A Celebrity…’, mainly because I was so desperate to see Christopher Biggins win. When he finally did, it was surprisingly touching. Not just because he entertained solidly throughout the show, but because any mainstream reality show being won by an openly gay man is pretty special. I’ve loved his face when Ant ‘n’ Dec read the result out; I also loved it when his boyfriend came running towards him on the bridge at the end. How sweet!

 I missed X Factor yesterday, but I wasn’t surprised to hear that Hope have been shipped out, so to speak. In the end, it looks like Phoebe couldn’t continue to carry the ‘group’ after all. I had a soft spot for them in the beginning, but I do think that the competition was too good this year. And it doesn’t help that the market for girl groups in pop is not what it once was - sadly.

 So, Leona Lewis is number one once again with Bleeding Love. I don’t hate the song but I wish it wasn’t so bleeding Americanized. If Mr Cowell took a look at the British acts who’ve actually been successful across the pond in recent years, he might notice that they all had a bit of personality and uniqueness, rather than just being blatant copies of what the Americans had been churning out for years.

 Rant over, for this week!!

Next week, I give Shayne Ward’s latest ‘Breathless’ a listen. Wish me luck…

All grown up November 24, 2007

Hello! Welcome to my brand new blog which will basically be an out and out review of the latest albums out there in the pop world. Sometimes I may also talk about TV programmes and films I’ve watched, if they’re any good.

Girls Aloud – Tangled Up

 

Back at the beginning of the year when Girls Aloud teamed up with the Sugababes for the Comic Relief 2007 single, people were really excited because it was a collaboration between two of  the country’s biggest girl groups. No one had thought a pairing of the two could work; it would either sound impossibly forced or completely lazy, and they would never get on with each other anyway. But it worked perfectly, in the end, becoming possibly one of the better Comic Relief singles in the charity’s twenty year history. I would venture that the most exciting thing about it is that it was a collaboration between the ONLY two big British girl groups. I would also venture that if the two were in competition, Girls Aloud would come out on top as the best girly group out there at the moment.

 Anyone who doesn’t believe me should listen to their sublime new album, Tangled Up. There are no token ballads to be heard on this CD, thank God. They’ve been going for so long now that they must have been allowed to do what they like with this LP, and you can tell. Ditching all blandness in favour of experimental retro beats, the Girls Aloud machine has produced the closest thing to pop perfection any act under the management of Louis Walsh will ever get. Kicking off with new single Call The Shots, GA waste no time in establishing the fact that they mean business when it comes to relationships and love. No man will call the shots over these girls, if the self assured, intelligent lyrics of the song are to be believed.

 Next we have Close To Love, one of my favourite songs on the album. Here is the first hint that the Girls are aiming for a 90’s feel at the moment; traces of acid house permeate the track which is at heart an icy cool disco stomper about getting down in the club. It would be a crime for them not to release this as a single. It’s a surefire hit if ever there was one.

 Up next is September’s lead single, Sexy No No No. Probably the weirdest song of the year, it overuses vocoders and bass guitars but the girls’ angelic voices and mature delivery help the song to get away with its sheer freakiness.

 Track no.4, Girl Overboard, starts off with some misleadingly emotional guitars, giving the impression that we’re about to hear a traditional girly ballad, but the beat soon kicks in and we have another hi-NRG disco number on our hands. Next up is Can’t Speak French, which is as engaging as its name suggests. It’s hard to determine what the song is actually supposed to be about, but that doesn’t matter as the edgy, vaguely experimental backing track kind of puts you in mind of something that would have been played at some uber-cool underground club in the mid 80’s.

 Track no.6, Black Jacks, is the one you should skip straight to if you have no intention of trawling through the whole album. Like something that would have been released by a retro American girl band in the mid 90’s, this song seeps into your soul. I have not been able to stop thinking about it! The sunny lyrics, crashing electric drums and anthemic strings are a killer combination and if this becomes one of the eventual releases, it wouldn’t be out of place at the top of the charts.

 Control of the Knife is another one of those tunes that makes you think the Girls have decided to indulge their 90’s-loving inner children on this album. Starting off with the Englishman In New York melody, it might give you a bit of a worry to begin with, but it quickly becomes another infectious little ditty with a dirty ska melody and pumping beat that would have gone down very well at any early 90’s rave. Nicola’s sexy rap-singing in the middle lifts it above many proper dance records.

 Fling is a reminder of all the songs that gave Girls Aloud their initial success. Hints of No Good Advice, Something Kinda Oooh and Wake Me Up reside here, and that really isn’t a bad thing. It would make a very reliable floorfiller at G-A-Y.

 What You Crying For comes as a shock to the system; as soon as the drum and bass breakbeat kicks in you’d be forgiven for wondering if it was a mistake. But it really is Girls Aloud, and it really is good – without the classic self assured GA harmonies it would be a fairly average garage track reserved for Pirate FM, but the five voices laid on top singing about relationship woes in the noughties make it something very special and different. Let’s face it, what other girl group could get away with doing drum and bass?

 I’m Falling continues the dirty drum and bass theme, and I have to admit I laughed on first listen, thinking that the first line was saying: ‘When I was young I wanted to be a trucker.’ Did you really, Cheryl? I wouldn’t be surprised. Ultimately this is another one of my favourites on the album – completely infectious, not too heavy for repeat listens and not too light either.

 Damn is another more typical Girls Aloud offering, handing us a slice of 80’s prog-rock mixed with Hey Mickey!-esque lyrics on a neon-coloured plate. For that reason I didn’t really like this one when I first heard it, but now I would say it was a definite grower. Finally, we have Crocodile Tears which is as close to pop ballad territory as the album gets. I suppose it’s in their contract to do one, though you can tell they’ve tried really hard with this one not to offer us the usual slushy ballad about broken hearts and boyfriends. And that’s what I love about Girls Aloud – they refuse to be categorised. At least, anyone who buys their albums would know that. Over all, this album gets a 9 out of 10 from me. It’s brash, intelligent and thoroughly addictive. I’ve listened to it about three times today alone. If you want proof that British girl groups can be grown up and original, go out there and buy Tangled Up!

 Next week: Kylie Minogue’s X! Yay!