Back in 1987 INXS dropped the single ‘Need You Tonight’ on the world, armed with Michael Hutchence at his peak and that indomitable guitar riff which wormed it’s way under you skin coupled with a come hither vocal that I daresay made a generation of teenage girls go a bit funny at the knees.
Fast forward to 2010 and Michael may have long since checked out, that riff however is still knocking around and like a musical olympic torch it has been passed to Professor Green. He reinterprets the track by dropping a wry tongue in cheek lyric over the top and it works to great effect. Armed with a streetwise player narrative the song tells the story of a ladies man getting a taste of his own medicine, it might be one of the oldest stories in the world but it works.
The radio mix you will all be familiar with by now, Green’s delivery is solidly reinforced by a huge chunk of the original song with vocal assists courtesy of Ed Drewett. On the remix front we have vocal and dub mixes courtesy of Doman & Gooding which forego the novelty aspect and strip away the bulk of the sample work and replace it with a nimble percussive recut that should have a good dose of longevity on the dancefloor. Gramophonedzie deliver a dub mix which reintroduces the INXS factor but serves it up in a choppier rangier fashion, probably the weakest mix of the three but if you heard it in a club it wouldn’t make you leave the floor.
As a single, this has legs, Green has a lyrical knack and proves to have natural dexterity with his rhymes. Couple it with elements of what might be considered a pop classic and you cant really go wrong.
Meanwhile out on Monday is the latest single from Plan B ‘She Said’, another slice of retro pop/soul that comes with his now trademark falsetto vocal and acerbic rap delivery, a suitable follow up to his previous single (Stay Too Long). Check the video if you haven’t already, it’s the second installment in the “Strickland Banks” story, quality stuff indeed.
The album ‘The Defamation Of Strickland Banks’ is out on April 12th.
