SOMETHING INSIDE SO STRONG

Rik Waller

It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? If the original wasn’t going to be re-released (No4, April 1987 if you’re interested. You’re not? Well, forget it then) somebody else was going to cash in on its overuse in a certain car commercial. And look who it is. It’s a Pop Idol contestant. Surprise surbloomingprise. It’s not the fact that it’s a Pop Idol who’s doing the singing that annoys me because Rik really can sing and sing well. Nope, what gets me is the way that invariably apart from the singing, precious little effort goes into these songs on the part of the musicians. They always sound as though they reckon the efforts of Rik, Gareth et al are enough to do the job. However, this particular song doesn’t just take the biscuit, it dunks it until it disintegrates, leaving a sludgy mess at the bottom of the cup. How desperate is it? Well, they’ve wheeled out the big guns (namely the gospel choir) in an attempt to give it a little extra “emotional resonance” (I think that’s what it’s called). They do what they can, as does Rik, but it’s never going to be enough. Oh well.

IN MY PLACE

Coldplay

I’m not normally a big fan of Coldplay but almost anything’s good after that. To be fair to them, this actually isn’t too bad. It’s still a tad on the melancholy side, but there’s a bit more to it than that (yup, it’s a song with some depth to it unlike… well, see above). All in all, it’ll do for now, but it’d be interesting to see what they could come out with if they cheered up a bit.