HAPPINESS HAPPENING

Lost Witness

Yeah, yeah, I know I'm late with this one. Guess what? I don't care. Because this week I bring you that rare beast, a column with two (count 'em) positive reviews! Cherish this day! You know when you hear a song and you think "wow that's really great" and you buy it and take it home and care for it and then in November when it's chucking it down you pop it on and it whisks you back to those long summer days in June when it still chucked it down occasionally but at least it was warmer? This is one of those songs.

HEY BOY, HEY GIRL

Chemical Brothers

I am impressed. Mightily impressed. This five-inch aluminium wonder is the reason why I do these reviews in the first place. Granted, I sometimes wield a hatchet over singles I deem unworthy of even leaving the factory they're pressed in, but every now and again something pops round to remind me that yes, some decent stuff still reaches the Top 40, it's not always raining and that there's always next season (especially useful to remember if you're an Ipswich Town supporter). In short, this is fantastic. It's blippy, it's beaty, it's jolly, why, it's all sorts of things ending with y. Think of all those naff synthesized 1980s tunes like what Jan Hammer and Harold Faltermeyer churned out with startling regularity and a Yamaha Sounds Groovy Keyboard and then think of one of those tunes made good. Miami Vice lives! A word of advice to my huge and loyal army of readers (and how are you both?) though, don't go the whole eighties horror thing and grow a mullet. They're not big and they're not clever.

BY REQUEST

Boyzone (album)

This week's going so well, let's not spoil it, eh?