I BELIEVE

Simian Mobile Disco

I've said it before, and I'll say it again – I'm a sucker for bizarre band names. Many's the time I've checked out a band's music purely on the strength of their name, because the way I see it is that if they've gone to that much trouble on just the name, then think how much effort's gone into the songs. Admittedly, the theory does fall down sometimes, but by and large it holds true. So anyway, Simian Mobile Disco. Great name, so that's ticked one box, but what of the song? It's electropop, but good electropop. Oh dear, I'm damning it with faint praise. Tell you what, let me put it this way, Calvin Harris has put out a couple of singles that pay tribute to the 1980s without quite managing to really capture the thing that made eighties pop music (when it was on form) work so well. This is the first song I've ever heard from this lot, and they've nailed it in one. It's just the sort of thing that you might expect to find nestled on Side Four of Now That's What I Call Music 3 (an album so jaw-droppingly eighties the cover featured a pig wearing sunglasses I kid you not), but it also sounds bang up to date, so it could just as easily make its way onto disc two of Now 67 if it really wanted to. In other (and fewer) words then, it's great.

IS IS

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Here we are in a brave new world where old Billie Piper singles, B-sides and album tracks can all qualify for the singles chart, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs have still managed to bring out a single that falls foul of what few chart regulations there are left. Even the digital format doesn't qualify, but it doesn't really matter. There are five new tracks, and the title track itself is only fourth on the list, so really this feels more like a mini-album than a single. In my opinion, when the Yeah Yeah Yeahs put out a terrible song it's a major surprise because their stuff has been so consistent over the years, but it doesn't sound as though too much has changed since the last album – which is no bad thing. After all, they haven't run out of ideas yet, and this latest batch of tunes veers from bonkers to sinister to reflective to in your face – sometimes during the same song. Just to reassure you, if you're thinking of picking this up at a half-decent record shop and you see the titles Down Boy and Kiss Kiss listed, they haven't turned into a Holly Valance tribute band. In fact, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Down Boy is actually the best track out of the five. Right, that's yet another one I like, this is getting silly now. There must be something rubbish around, surely…

CHARIOTS OF FIRE

B.W.O.

…seek and ye shall find. I actually looked this one up because I thought it was going to be some sort of trance reworking of the Vangelis tune. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a completely different song. I can't say "new", because although it may well have been written recently, it sure as Hell doesn't sound like it. In fact, it sounds like an escaped song from way back, when forgettable pop bands like 911, A1, Scooch (first time round) and all the rest were all prancing around the charts – at least back then the chart moved a lot quicker, so if one of that rabble went Top 5 first week out, they'd be doing well to stay in the Top 40 a month later – a tradition McFly seem intent on upholding, judging by their recent releases. This isn't dreadful, but it's painfully middle-of-the-road, which in some ways is worse because it does absolutely nothing I haven't heard before. To be fair though, the CD does sound amazing when put into a blender, which is a shame as it was obviously intended to be heard in a CD player instead. Ah well, whatever works, eh?