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Sugababes

It’s never a promising sign when I find myself checking my watch before the first chorus has finished only to discover there’s another two minutes to go. Yeah, it’s sung well and it’s a straightforward ballad, but there’s just nothing here. No bells or whistles, but no interest either. It’s a bit like staring at a pavement, really. They’re capable of better than this, but perhaps they’re releasing this to fulfil the quota of one duff single off the album (be honest, nearly everyone does it), mind you if that was the case someone should’ve reminded them they’ve already released Push The Button.

AGAIN AND AGAIN

Jewel

Give her credit, she’s still trying. Way back in November 1998, I reviewed one of her singles. I know it sounds an awfully long time ago, but I did. Not for this newspaper, but for its predecessor. Hell’s bells, that makes me sound old. No, I didn’t write it on parchment and send it in via carrier pigeon. Things were far more advanced than that even as far back as the 20th Century. I sent it in via Morse Code instead. Anyway, we’re drifting away from the point here and that’s Jewel’s new single. Now, the reason I bring up the subject of the last time I got round to reviewing her stuff is because at the time I wrote, “Jewel is big in America. However, this is not America. Jewel could walk down the street here and nobody would ask for her autograph.” How times change, if you’re not Jewel. Oh yes, that’s fine talk coming from a man who’s been doing this column for very nearly eight years himself, mind you I still enjoy writing these and I’ll assume Jewel still enjoys doing her music so we’ll call it evens there, eh? The fact is, though, she remains virtually unknown over here and with songs like this I’m not sure it’ll happen for her any time soon either. It’s cheery, breezy, lovey-dovey guitar pop, but it doesn’t actually stand out, or at least it wouldn’t if it wasn’t for the fact that she’s got a singing voice that most pop stars would quite happily sell their nearest and dearest for. There’s no X-Factor type theatrics going on here, she’s just singing the song and doing the job properly. In other words, exactly the sort of thing Radio 2 would love – not a bad thing if you want to get noticed these days. You know, I think I’ve worked it out. I think she’s working on the law of averages, if she keeps putting out songs long enough, one day she’ll take off over here like James Blunt did last year. Good luck to her, she’s got the voice, all she needs now is better songs to back it up.

CHEATED HEARTS

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

One of these days, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are going to release something awful. They have to, it’s the law of averages again. Trouble is, I can’t think of anything they’ve done so far that qualifies as awful. That’s very unusual. I did think this might qualify as sub-standard for a while, but no. You see, everyone has an off day. George Michael has Amazing, New Order have Sub-Culture, Crazy Frog has his entire existence. It just doesn’t seem to happen with this band though. This one for instance, it starts off slow and you think “They’ve done a ballad” and then the drums come in. It’s still fairly mid-paced, but while other bands would be trying to make things sound as clean and crisp as possible, this sounds like it’s been dragged through the mud - and that’s what makes it great. There’s also an air of uncertainty about this song, the first time I heard it I felt it was constantly simmering, as if at any point it could suddenly go absolutely mental. I’ve got all the time in the world for bands who are prepared to put the hours in to make a song as good as it can be and this is a textbook example of it.