RESTLESS

UNKLE

To be honest, this feels more like an UNKLE remix of a Queens of the Stone Age single than an UNKLE single, not that that's a bad thing of course. It's heavily guitar-led and it's sung by Josh Homme, but it bounces along at a decent pace, and even better, it changes tack a few times just to leave a little room for doubt as to what the song's going to do next. And... er... actually, I think that's summed this song up quite nicely. Tell you what, seeing as this review's a bit shorter than usual, I might as well pad it out a bit by putting the famous Simon Kiss Of Death on it. This is a good song and I like it. There we go, that should be enough to keep Chasing Cars in the Top 75 for another week.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME

Cascada

I was rather hoping for a poppy remake of the ancient Monaco track, but sadly some things just aren't meant to be. It doesn't start too promisingly, this one - the proceedings are initiated in a low-key fashion, but it's not long before someone plugs in the drum machine and we're off and running. I think they were trying to give the impression that this song might be a little slower than some of their others, but unfortunately it's so obvious that we're in for more of the same that any changes in tempo or style aren't just signposted for you, they're programmed into a sat-nav to make absolutely sure you won't encounter anything unexpected. For heaven's sake, the chorus even includes the phrase "love in the first degree". The last band to sing that line was Bananarama, but the horrors don't end there. Oh no, for some unexplained reason a random bloke is roped in to say "What you want?" The first time I heard him say that, I was thinking "well, a decent song for starters", but he says it twice in the last twenty seconds. Probably just to make sure, I should think, but that brings us to the worst part of the song. Much as I'm glad it clocks in at under three minutes (thereby qualifying it as a potential Eurovision song), it seems to stop dead at an awkward point, which left me in the rather odd position of being glad it was over and yet feeling that the song had stopped too early. This really isn't a very good song at all, but it's going to be a hit and nothing short of the end of the world will stop that from happening. Ah well, who's next?

THERE SHE GOES

La's

How can you not like it? It's a classic. All those jangly guitars, not to mention the fact that local radio have barely stopped playing it. Well, I don't like it. I can't stand it myself. Classic or not, it's never done anything for me, which is rather annoying considering it's being re-issued to mark the release of a hugely upgraded version of the band's only album. Tell you what, let's have a look at the B-side instead.

WAY OUT

La's

Now, this is much more like it. It's always going to sit in the shadow of There She Goes, but for me Way Out is far superior. I first encountered this song on The Chart Show way back in 1987 (now there was a decent music show), and it wasn't until years later that I found out that the two songs were recorded by the same band. That was a shock, I can tell you. This one predates There She Goes, and it sounds it. It's not as polished, but the band actually sound as they're enjoying themselves more and the rough edges help it to stand proudly on its own two feet. If I was at Universal Music, I'd have flipped the tracks over because this is one of those songs that deserves far more exposure than it's ever likely to get. In fact, it's so good I'm going to recommend the single purely for the B-side.