I'LL BE WAITING

Lenny Kravitz

Well now, here's a name from the past. I must admit, I didn't think I'd be reviewing anything by Lenny Kravitz again, he'd been gone that long. I'm not entirely sure whether he's fallen out with the drummer though, because either he's working strictly to rule or he's been ordered not to do anything remotely interesting. Aside from a couple of moments where he throws in a few sneaky thumps (perhaps he thought that nobody was watching him), the drummer's used purely as a metronome. As for the rest of the song, it builds up very, very gradually so that by the end there's all sorts going on, but because it's built up so slowly it still makes sense rather than descending into some sort of tuneless cacophony. He certainly seems to have a better working relationship with the people playing the stringed and brass instruments, seeing as they're brought in for the big finish, but when all's said and done this is merely an OK outing for Mr Kravitz, nothing special. Ah well, never mind.

FASCINATION

Alphabeat

Oh heck, it's 1985 all over again. C5s all over Britain (well, car boot sales anyway), Roger Moore is still James Bond, Sister Sledge singing Frankie on Top Of The Pops while John Peel says what he really thinks about the bands he's introducing, pastel colours everywhere... come to think of it, the only positive out of all that is John Peel. Thing is though, this single really could've come straight from the mid-eighties, it sounds that dated. Actually, hang on a second... this sounds so out of date it could actually be one of this year's Eurovision Song Contest entries. Yes, yes, maybe that's it! I mean, look at what you've got here. The tune is so relentlessly happy and cheerful that it could've travelled here from a mad parallel universe where puppies and kittens stay that way for life, the skies are always blue (even at night) and H from Steps is Prime Minister of the World. Want proof? Try this Ð there are two singers, one male and one not, and they sing the entire song together. Isn't that sweet? It must be, because it makes me want to yak, but that's probably because I'm about as romantic as a toaster. There's a time and a place for this sort of music, and that's anywhere I'm not. To be fair to it, it's happy, it's jolly, it's fluffy, it's that good for you it probably counts as one of your five a day, but it's just a bit too happy for me. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a big hit and ended up on the radio more often than the news, but I've had to listen to this a few times now and each time it starts I find myself thinking "I'd rather listen to Katrina and the Waves", which really is somewhere I didn't think I'd ever go.

NINE IN THE AFTERNOON

Panic! At The Disco

I'm really not sure what to make of this one. It sounds like they've attempted a homage to the Beatles circa Sergeant Pepper, but it's not quite come off. I think the biggest problem is that when they made Sergeant Pepper, it sounded as though the Beatles and reality were barely on speaking terms, which is a pretty hard act to follow. This lot do their best, but it's just too steep a hill to climb. Not looking too hopeful this week, is it?

ALICE

Moby

There must be something wrong when you hear a new single and the first thing that pops into your head is "This could easily have come off an album he did nine years ago", but that's what happened to me with this one. Moby won't thank me for saying it, but despite the dark and pessimistic sound on display here, this really does sound eerily similar to the songs he was putting out when Play was in the shops. Maybe it's the beat that does it, I'm not sure, but this is another song that sounds a bit dated. Maybe that's the trend these days...