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Miss Leona Lewis should be celebrating in a big way today as Bleeding Love has hit the top of the US pop chart. According to the BBC, this makes her the first British female in over 20 years to do so.
I think a moment’s silence is called for. [Insert silence here]
Was Duffy’s caterwauling driving you up the walls too? Thankfully, Estelle has knocked her off the #1 spot this week, with a little help from her friend, Mr West. Just another reason to love Kanye.
In other news, the big names are still holding steady in the chart - Leona, OneRepublic, Nickelback. Alphabeat, unfortunately, slip out of the top ten this week. Darn.
With a name like Alphabeat, you sort of expect a b-grade dance act. What you get is so much better. Fascination is one of those happy tracks that unearths the best cheesy pop of the 1980’s and runs with it as if the last two decades never happened.
The Manchester Evening News namechecks Wham!, Chic and the B-52’s in their review. Knowing that the B-52’s were releasing some new material, I assumed that this was it.
Fascination is…
Let’s be honest with each other, readers. It’s just a bloody good, upbeat, happy song. There’s no point in trying to intellectualise it or pontificate. Alphabeat are making great pop music. Instant classic. Thumbs up. ‘Nuff said.
Blunty continues to plumb the depths of wrist-slashingly dull ballads with his newest single, Carry You Home. You know the worst bit? This song is supposed to be special to him and yet he still sings it in that strange falsetto that has me reaching for knitting needles to stick in my eardrums. (Don’t try that at home people, just call your local branch of the James Blunt Is Making Me Suicidal Society)
You’ve got to admire the sheer nerve of Fragma - they’ve been re-mixing and re-releasing Toca’s Miracle since the original came out in 2000. But that’s alright in my book, because it’s simply one of the best damn dance tracks ever.
The 2008 reworking is probably a much slicker effort, but the beats are a little more restrained and the vocals aren’t quite as dramatic as Coco’s original. I suppose it’s like when you’re familiar with the original version of a song, no cover version can quite match up to it.
Alright, forgetting about Can’t Speak French for a moment, why has no-one noticed that Nadine Coyle has been replaced by a cyborg? Come on, are you ignoring the increasingly robotic movements in Girls Aloud videos, or the fact that she no longer goes on reality TV expeditions with the gals?
I’m only mentioning this for a talking point - is Nadine the killjoy of the group? I mean “I only do stuff to promote Girls Aloud” What the hell? It’s not like they’re U2 for God’s sake - they’re a tease act, like the Pussycat Dolls only paler. And with better songs.
West London’s Estelle manages to score a home run by getting Kanye West to collaborate and will.i.am to twiddle the knobs on this funky, funky track.
Estelle has been lurking around the lower reaches of the pop chart for a few years now. However, her musical releases have been inconsistent enough that she hasn’t hit the mainstream…until now.
Someone needs to give Mariah Carey lessons in sexy. I was but a lad in 1990 when Mariah first hit the scene and quickly became the biggest diva in the world. There was no-one else quite like her.
Then, when her marriage (of convenience) to record label boss Tommy Motola (filthy control freak) went sour, she decided to have a bit of a raunchy makeover. However, Mariah crossed the line to the point where her music serves to showcase her boobies instead of her phenomenal vocal range.
Just is Mark Ronson’s fourth single from his Version album, and if anything it’s proof that this guy has that jazzy funk style licked. If you look back over Stop Me, Oh My God and Valerie, you can see just how stylishly consistent this guy is.
And if you’re not aware, Just was the catalyst for the whole Version album. It’s a cover of a Radiohead song that Ronson did for a Radiohead tribute album a couple of years ago. The vocalist joining Mark on the song is Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet.
First single from Gnarls Barkley’s second album, Run isn’t a massive departure from the hip-hop/soul fusion of their first album.
But then why mess with success? The Gnarls Barkley sound was a breath of fresh air when they first surfaced and there’s really little to challenge their monopoly on the sound today.
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