THE FALLEN

Franz Ferdinand

As you may know, I’m not the easiest person to please when it comes to music. That’s a revelation that’s hardly likely to surprise either of my readers, but there you go. That said, I do like this. Any song that sounds as though the drums were being thrown down the stairs while the drummer was trying to play them is usually OK by me and if anybody involved was in a bad mood when they were recording this I’d be very surprised. It’s loud, it’s got more get up and go than a love-starved rabbit and it’s great fun to listen to. Who could ask for more? Well, me for a start, one song isn’t going to pad out this column.

ONE

Mary J. Blige and U2

I’m asking for trouble here by reviewing this. I’m not much of a fan of R&B and U2 don’t really do a lot for me. That’s not really the best of starts, is it? Well now, this is where it gets interesting. If I say this really fast, maybe the U2 fans will miss it – thisismuchbetterthantheoriginal. Phew, glad I got that out of my system. In fact, let’s go one step further. Bono and La Blige may share the singing duties, but she utterly destroys him – on his own song too. The start is more U2 than R&B, proper instruments kicking off proceedings while Bono does his little bit at the start, but once the star of the show turns up, it’s game over for the guy with the shades. Yeah, fair enough, she does a bit of vocal acrobatics and normally I’d be having a rant about that, but do you know something, I’m going to let her off because she’s not doing it as if to say “Look what what I can do”, she’s doing it because it’s her way of adding something to the song. If I was a music teacher I’d be suggesting that the voice can be used as a musical instrument too, but I’m not so I’ll say it anyway and my God, doesn’t she make good use of it here. All in all, this song’s come as a very nice surprise.

WHO AM I

Will Young

First of all, the tune’s a bit dreary, so let’s skip that. The words are good (it’s a love song where the protagonist can’t commit himself) and Will Young sings it just right (see, some of these reality TV bods know what they’re doing). Unfortunately, all that’s overshadowed by the quality video that features him as a 1970s Blue Peter presenter, so when you watch it you won’t care what he’s singing because you’ll be too busy saying “That’s John Noakes!”. Oops.

I'M WITH STUPID

Pet Shop Boys

The Pet Shop Boys are back. I mean they’re really back. All the usual ingredients are there – more electronic gadgetry than a branch of Comet and world-weary lyrics sung by Neil Tennant in a way that makes it sound like he’s fighting to be heard. What makes this different from much of the stuff they’ve turned out in the past ten or so years is that it doesn’t have that “we’ve had our success, let’s just coast along now” sound to it that Nightlife and Release had. This is the sound of a band that’s woken up, discovered that they’re still capable of better music than most of the bands around today and just gone for it. For me personally, the Pet Shop Boys’ finest stuff was done in the eighties, with Very acting as a small spike on an otherwise downwards trend but this... wow. This is right up there with Suburbia, Opportunities and Left To My Own Devices. It’s that good. Did I mention the world-weary lyrics? No? Check these out – “Is stupid really stupid or a different kind of smart?” and “Why would I be with someone who’s obviously so dumb?”. I really don’t know what’s going on here, first the Stereophonics become good, then Garbage and Depeche Mode rediscover their form, now these two. It’s like I’m being rewarded for putting up with the likes of the Cheeky Girls and the Vengaboys for years on end. I could get used to this.