THEY LIKED YOU BETTER WHEN YOU WERE DEAD

Fightstar

Sometimes, when somebody emerges from the wreckage of a pop band, the end results can be something of a surprise. Take Robbie Williams, for instance. There he is, the wacky one out of Take That, up against Housewives Favourite Gary Barlow. Didn’t stand a chance and, let’s face it, if it wasn’t for Angels he would probably have vanished from sight a la Barlow. Could be worse, though. Look at the Spice Girls. As they fell apart all five of them attacked the Top 40 with varying, not to mention lessening degrees of success (but that can wait until later). And now, crawling out of the smoking ruins of Busted, we have Charlie and his new day-job and, let me tell you, this is about as far away from Busted as Aldershot Town are from the Premier League. Not only that, but everything is much louder than before (to the extent of some of the lyrics being screamed at you), much harder and there’s more passion and feeling put into one Fightstar song than anything Busted ever did. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “He’s going to give this a good review”, that’s what you’re thinking. Well, possibly anyway. Unfortunately, all five songs on the E.P. have that annoying “I’ve heard it all before” feel to them. Yes, it’s loud, but so are Funeral For A Friend. Charlie screams – whoopee-doo, so do Korn. They’re passionate about what they do – really? So they should be, no point otherwise. For a first release, this is somewhat underwhelming, but you never know, once they come out with songs that are unmistakeably Fightstar rather than Could Be Almost Anyone, they could turn out OK. No promises, though. Anyway, somebody mentioned the Spice Girls…

NEXT BEST SUPERSTAR

Melanie C

Oh yeah, it was me. See that? Seamless move from one review to the next, that was. Now then, I could start this review with a sentence containing the phrases “far away”, “Aldershot Town” and “Premier League”, but I shan’t even though technically I just have. Work that one out. So, onto Mel C then. Her career sums up the “lessening degrees of success” I was going on about earlier – four Top 10 singles to start with, including two Number Ones (however, that year there were 43 Number One singles so that rather takes the shine off that achievement). After that, there’s only one way to go and it’s not up – the last album fell out of the charts almost before Virgin Records had sent it to the shops. Of course, if you’re a pop star and you miss the Top 10, unless your name is Phixx your chances of staying with a major record label are about the same as me solving a Rubik’s Cube without the aid of a screwdriver and so it has come to pass that Miss Chisholm has done a Simply Red and set up her own record label. I’m only guessing, but I’d reckon that using your own money to finance your own music focuses the mind and gives you an incentive to do as well as you possibly can. If that’s the case, then so far it’s working because this is a world away from the wishy-washy sludge that she brought out last time. That means it’s good, folks. This is how pop-rock should be done, no posing about with guitars and big cheeky grins (hello McFly), just get on with a decent song by starting off with a riff that sticks in your head like a badly-aimed javelin, bring in a few drums, add one singer, then bring in the bass just before the chorus and you’re on your way. As for the singer’s performance, well, I suppose it helps to believe in what you’re rabbiting on about and seeing as this song seems to be about the idea of creating short-lived pop stars, then dumping them and moving on to the next one, this could be Mel C’s way of saying “Cheerio and thanks for sticking by me” to her former employers. That’s just my theory, mind, you work out your own. This song is that good that for a second I thought someone else sang On The Horizon.