EZ PASS

Har Mar Superstar

Yup, you guessed it. EZ is pronounced Easy. Good song, though. It’s like Jamiroquai and Les Rhythmes Digitales met each other at a local pub, got chatting, agreed to do a song together and then nipped off to the recording studio down the road (because, for this supposition to work, there would have to be one – look, just suspend your disbelief for a second and stick with it, it’ll all make sense, besides I have to put in a close bracket and go back to the story…). So where were we? Jamiroquai, Digitales, pub, chat, song, studio… that’s it. Right, this is what that song would sound like (he says, finally). It’s funky like Jamiroquai’s stuff, but it’s got that eighties retro disco sound that the other lot like so much. God knows how, but it works really well. Well, that’s a good start to the week, what’s next?

SLEEPING WITH THE LIGHT ON

Busted

Oh dear. Busted are a strange old band. I can’t shake the feeling that in a few years time, their ability to play their instruments (obviously they’ve not read The Pop Idol Guide To Becoming Famous in that respect) may be the one thing that keeps them in the music business while their contemporaries will be busy asking their former fans if they’d like to “Go Large” for an extra 30p. Unfortunately, by then they’ll be much older and wiser and they’ll look back on much of their first album and think “Did we really record that?”. At the moment, they’re just another pop-rock band who don’t seem to have many ideas of their own musically (although lyrics about fancying teachers and travelling in time certainly puts them way above A1 in that respect) and this is a pretty average rock ballad. I was checking my watch long before the song ended, let’s put it that way. They’re a band with potential, I won’t doubt that, but this is their worst single by a country mile.

RUSH HOUR SOUL

Supergrass

When your last single wasn’t really that great, in an ideal world it’s a good idea to come back with something better. Supergrass have done this, but I still think the best single from the Life On Other Planets album is the one that stiffed at No.75 in the charts. Still, you’ve got to laugh, haven’t you? It’s loud, it’s upbeat, it’s fun, it’s got screaming guitars, but… oh, I don’t know why, but it just doesn’t have the same spark as Richard III or Moving. One to be filed under “Good, but…”, I think.

HOLLYWOOD

Madonna

This week, Madonna is mostly warning us that Hollywood isn’t the dream place it’s made out to be. Gosh, thanks for that, Madonna. It’s a reasonable pop song and it beats the hell out of American Life, but nobody’s going to remember it in a few weeks so it doesn’t matter.

THE GREAT LOVE SOUND

The Raveonettes

One word – wow. This is great. This sounds like so many different things all rolled into one it’s surprising that the song makes as much sense as it does. First of all, we have the boy-girl joint singers routine (hello, Roxette) – don’t worry, they do this much better than Roxette (they don’t scream at every given opportunity for a start). As for the tune itself, well… imagine the backbeat of Buddy Holly’s Peggy Sue (quick Buddy Holly history lesson for the schoolkids – famous short-sighted singer, handful of classic songs, Winter Dance Party, plane crash, stage musical), a punk song and the aforementioned singers all bunged together. It shouldn’t work. As sure as Jennifer Ellison is no Wendy James and every odd numbered Tomb Raider game is pants, this ought to sound like a godawful mess. It doesn’t, though, instead it sounds dark and sinister, but the drummer does what he’s paid for and there’s absolutely no let up until the song finishes. Personally, I think this song screams “class on a stick”, which is a nice way to end the week I reckon.