Not Madonna.

CDLXXIX - 16 January 2008

BEAUTIFUL BURNOUT

Underworld

Ever wondered where it all went wrong for Underworld? I know I haven't. One minute they were turning out stuff like Born Slippy and Pearl's Girl and reaching the Top 20 as a matter of routine, but nowadays they can't buy a hit. It's a sad tale, really, even more so when you consider how good this is. It's one of those weird songs that you either dance away to or chill out to, and although there are lyrics they're pretty minimal (and, as is the way with Underworld, sounds like loads of random words stuck together), so they don't get in the way of things. Unfortunately, just as Crocodile tanked in the charts, I can't see the masses rushing out to buy this one either, which is annoying because like Crocodile, it's one of their better efforts. Ah well, who's next?

JIGSAW FALLING INTO PLACE

Radiohead

Radiohead give away their new album on the Internet in October, and in January the physical versions of In Rainbows go straight to Number One on the album chart. What does that all mean? I dunno, but I bet the major record labels are scratching their heads and wondering how on Earth it happened. They can hardly argue that downloading is killing CD sales now, can they? Now then, I was going to describe this as a traditional Radiohead song, but quite frankly this lot have changed direction so many times and tried so many different things that there's really no such thing as a traditional Radiohead song anymore. It's a traditional song structure, though – verse, chorus, verse, that sort of thing with guitars, drums and Thom Yorke starting off fairly subdued and then building himself up. It's not the best song from In Rainbows, but having said that, if this isn't the best song that goes to show how good the album actually is, doesn't it? More of this sort of thing, I say.

SOMETHING GOOD 2008

Utah Saints

Seeing as the Utah Saints were creating dance tracks from the most unlikely source material way before the likes of Eric Prydz and Uniting Nations, I suppose it's only right that they themselves be subjected to having their songs updated. Way back in 1992, Something Good was huge. It was a bonkers little tune that sampled Kate Bush's Cloudbusting, specifically the part where she sings "I just know that something good is going to happen", and she wasn't wrong. The original version of Something Good has actually stood up to the test of time pretty well – to be fair, the bits where the bloke shouts "Utah Saints, U-U-U-Utah Saints" were a bit naff even then, but the rest of it – fantastic. And therein lies the problem. If the original has aged so well, does it really need updating? On the evidence presented here, I'd have to say no. Yes, it's recognisably the same song and yes, it's been updated, but this version isn't half as much fun as the original, in fact it's lost most of its personality and turned into just another dance track. Somebody's missed a trick here, I'm afraid.

SAW SOMETHING / DEEPER AND DEEPER

Dave Gahan

Well, Kingdom didn't do very well, so this time round Dave Gahan's bringing out a double-barrelled single. Saw Something is a bit gloomy and plodding, truth be told. Oddly enough, the guitar solo in the middle doesn't really help the proceedings, and really that's all I need to say about Saw Something, so let's move onto the other A-side, Deeper And Deeper. Surprisingly, it's not a cover of the early-nineties Madonna tune, although I'm sure that would really be something worth listening to. Deeper And Deeper is the complete opposite to Saw Something. It's full of life, goes utterly off its trolley right from the start and it sounds like Dave's having a great time. One minute he's singing perfectly normally, the next he sounds like a right dirty old man. There's something to be said for double A-sides you know, if one track's a bit grim, chances are the other will more than compensate, and this time round, he's just about got away with it.