This week’s single round up kicks off with the latest release courtesy of Grace out on November 12th through Charisma Records. The fact that it was produced by Steve Osborne was enough to make my ears prick up in interest and its refreshing to know that he has lost none of his knack for helping create those thunderous uplifting guitar anthems he was responsible for with the likes of Doves and Elbow. A runaway train of a track that provides the listener with just over three minutes of thunderous epic drums, somewhat lofty and aloof piano and insistent intricacies of guitar work, works nicely in its instrumental form which is also on the CD.
Next up is Peter Cincotti with his erstwhile anthem ‘Goodbye Philadelphia’. If Neil Diamond or Billy Joel were on their worst form and young enough to still be knocking out tunes that were capable of troubling the charts they would be producing material like this. A song that takes itself waaaaaay to seriously and doesn’t have the credibility or the originality to carry it off. It’s the audio equivalent of being in the last throes of a bad head cold.
Thankfully the next release from Splittr more than makes up for such turgid nonsense. ‘All Alone’ is an eerie squeaky uptempo breaks track with a bassline that sounds like it had been trapped in a barrel of radioactive waste and left on a seabed somewhere to mature nicely. Seriously dark and slightly off kilter synths coupled with a pleasingly stroppy vocal make this a floor filler in the making and one to watch. Its out November 12th, have a listen on their myspace page.
Angels and Airwaves “Everything’s Magic” is going to be one of those radio rotation tracks that slowly but surely works its way into your head and then promptly sets up residence there. Tom DeLonge carries across a number of his trademark styles from his Blink 182 (particularly in the vocal department) but he has backed with a musical force that is a little more mature and accomplished than his former band. Maybe they aren’t as funny but something tells me that isn’t what he’s going for nowadays. Chunky well prepared US power pop. Not bad at all. This bodes well for the future.
Fergie meanwhile continues to strip mine her album which despite the backing of no small entourage of producers has so far failed to impress. The latest effort is the track ‘Clumsy’ which is a surprisingly apt description. A song that doesn’t know whether it wants to be a mid tempo soul number or a sample fest, robbing Little Richard’s ‘The Girl Can’t Help It’ for its hook. Sadly even the great man himself can’t raise this to anything other than average. Sadly it’s annoying which usually means in the UK of late, it will chart. Bugger.
Craig David returns to peek out from behind his neatly manicured beard to trouble us with his latest release. Shamelessly hitching his wagon to a loooong sample of David Bowie’s ‘Lets Dance’ his new single ‘Hot Stuff’ works almost purely as a novelty. Its by no means terrible, but someone with his calibre of voice and early promise can show a little more imagination. Maybe Avid Merrion’s remorse piss taking has upset his self esteem a little and he doesn’t feel confident enough to stand on his own two feet without having someone’s else’s microwaved offerings in the background to shore him up. This one will be a short term pleasure, and a long term annoyance if you aren’t careful.
