COMING HOME

JJ72

Do you know, I’m not sure about this one. It starts off well enough, you get Mark Greaney singing along with only an electric guitar for company and that bit’s good, it gives it a raw, edgy feel, but then the drums and bass come in – again, no real problems here, but after that we get to the chorus. It’s a bit… anthemic, for want of a better word, in fact it’s heading down the road towards “stadium rock”, but luckily it turns off into a layby first and parks outside a greasy spoon restaurant. Maybe I’m just disappointed that they’ve made this their comeback single proper, relegating She’s Gone to just a download and an extraordinarily hard to find 7”. If it had been me making the choice, I’d have switched the two because where She’s Gone went mad for three and a half minutes, this just strums along gently in comparison. It’ll probably get lost amongst the rest of the week’s new releases because of it too, which is a shame really. JJ72 have the potential to make it big, but I said that five years ago and there eventually comes a point where you have to deliver. This one doesn’t I’m afraid, but on the bright side at least there are better songs on the album.

BETTER ALONE

Melanie C

And speaking of download only singles… I wonder if this is the future. Artist releases comeback single, said comeback single spirals out of the chart almost before the DJ finishes playing it on the Top 40 rundown, artist releases comeback album, said comeback album might as well have been pressed in lead instead of aluminium considering the speed with which it tumbles down the listings, artist gets ready to release second single, and then… Well, it’s all gone a bit wrong, hasn’t it? JJ72 led off with a download single, but it looks very much as though Mel C has decided to cut her losses on this one and go digital with her second single instead of seeing thousands of discs with her face on them make the inevitable trip to the recycling plant. Personally, I think it’s a shame this isn’t getting a full release, but I can see why the decision’s been made. If this went out properly, in the current climate it’d do well to make the Top 40 (want proof? Look at Mel B struggling to No.41). The charts may be finally slowing down these days, but this would still go into immediate freefall. Now why’s that then? Well, it’s an intelligent, well-written song (and here’s the “but”) performed by a former pop singer – big no-no, conventional wisdom says you should stick to what you’re known for. In this case, thank God she hasn’t. It also gets my seal of approval despite being a slowie – and that’s praise indeed – because it is well-written and the lyrics have a defiant “up yours matey” quality to them. If you want lovey-dovey slush you don’t have to think about, go and listen to Dido, but this is more like the sort of music I’d prefer to listen to.

THIS TOWN AIN'T BIG ENOUGH FOR BOTH OF US

British Whale

If any song was suited to Justin Hawkins’s unique vocal delivery, this would be it. Now, I’m a huge fan of the original (Sparks took it No.2 in June 1974 and good on them for doing so), so he’d better not let me down here. Well, he’s certainly gone for it and no mistake, running the full range from “relatively restrained” straight through to “excuse me, but I believe a rottweiler has just sunk its teeth into my crown jewels” whenever the title is mentioned. It also helps that his backing band are completely willing to play along with him, so you get the wailing guitars and everything. It’s never going to top the original, but it is damned good fun to listen to and besides, where else would you get Sparks, Phil “The Power” Taylor and Justin Hawkins in the same video? Alright, aside from Comic Relief?