ALL SHOOK UP and JAILHOUSE ROCK

Elvis Presley

It’s that man again. I’m telling you this now, I know RCA are releasing eighteen Elvis singles over the course of the next four months, but I’m not going to review them all because I’m not turning this into the Elvis Presley column. So there. One thing’s for sure, this one-release-a-week schedule’s going to play havoc with the singles chart but then, on the other hand, we’ve already got the fastest chart in the world so why not speed it up even more by throwing limited edition singles at it? Makes you wonder how they came up with this wheeze at RCA HQ – perhaps a high-ranking bigwig saw one of those adverts on telly advertising magazine partworks (you know, the sort that screams “Part One comes with a Free Binder” and, in miniscule type underneath the large on-screen “Part One Only 99p!”, “usualpriceisneareratennereveryweekforfouryears”) and thought “I wonder if we could do something like that to celebrate the 70th birthday of The King Of Rock’n’Roll?” Then he discovered that Shakin’ Stevens won’t be turning 70 for a few years yet and put the idea on hold until someone suggested this other bloke who was apparently fairly popular in his day. Now, it’s very easy to be cynical about all this, I mean really, at first glance it’s nothing more than a cash-in on a dead singer that’s mainly going to please his hardcore fans (of which there are shedloads) and eBay traders (of which there are shedloads). However, it’s hard to be cynical once you’ve actually seen these singles in real life. I’ve tried, couldn’t do it. The packaging, especially for the CD formats, is lovely. The 10”s come in generic RCA sleeves of the day and look functional but dull, but the CDs come in proper picture sleeves, with inner sleeves too – and you thought it was going to be a cheap and quick one bit of glued cardboard job. Not only that, but the CDs aren’t silver – they’re black to match the records. Yes, even the playing side. I’ve never seen a black music CD before (PlayStation One games, yes), so somebody has been thinking about these re-issues seriously. As for the sound quality, it’s as clear as a bell. I shan’t describe the songs to you, because if you haven’t heard them by now you really should get out more. The fact is, if you’re a fan of popular music, these are well worth picking up even if it’s for the historical value alone (obviously, if you’re a fan of eBay you’ll be keen to pick these up too given the silly prices that That’s All Right went for last year), but the only gripe I would have is that the boxes are a bit pricey for what they are – the 10” box costs around £6 on top of the All Shook Up 10” and the CD box around £4. On the bright side, at least Cliff Richard hasn’t done this – I could put up with Living Doll and Summer Holiday, but Mistletoe And Wine – you must be joking. One thing’s for sure, it makes the Wedding Present’s twelve singles in a year look a bit sedate (mind you, their singles were all brand new). If you’re going to re-issue something, this is how you should do it.

EVIL

Interpol

Interpol use the same musical set-up as McFly and Busted (guitars and drums), but the difference here is that Interpol have concentrated on the music more than their looks and does it show or what? (Clue – Yes, yes it does.) It’s great, that’s what this is. It’s quite upbeat, but it’s still a very dark and slightly unsettling song – the sort of song, in fact, that I had to listen to again as soon as it finished because I had a feeling there was to this song than I first thought. I was right too, it’s even better second time round. Great though this is, it’s not going to be a huge hit because there’s no band photo on the cover. I’m sure Interpol are really gutted about that.