CRUEL INTENTIONS

Simian Mobile Disco featuring Beth Ditto

I was chatting to someone a couple of weeks back about the state of things, and we realised that each decade had something about it that pushed things forward... except the last one. The fifties had rock and roll, the sixties had the summer of love, the seventies had disco and punk, the eighties had new romantics, house and indie, the nineties had rave, grunge and Britpop, and the 2000s had... what? It didn’t have nu rave, that fell on its face before it got going. Pop stars from "reality" TV, then? Yup, that’s the only thing that set the decade apart. This decade HAS to come up with something better, it simply has no choice. So, let’s see what we have here to kick things off. Well, you know what you’re getting with Simian Mobile Disco and that’s eighties-influenced dance / pop music, and you certainly know what you’re getting with Beth Ditto, and that’s a singer who never knowingly puts in a duff performance. Now then, if you remember Audacity Of Huge, and why wouldn’t you, after all it was SUCH a massive hit, you’ll recall that it wasn’t just mental, it was completely barking. On the other hand, this is far more restrained, chilled out and just the sort of thing to calm down to after the Christmas excesses. It really ought to be a hit, it’s the least it deserves.

3 WORDS

Cheryl Cole featuring will.i.am

One song being sung to the tune of another, that’s this one all over. The vocals don’t quite seem to fit the tune, however, when you consider how disappointing Fight For This Love was (well, I thought it was anyway) this is actually a huge upturn in quality. Very few pop songs sound like this and that’s a very good thing - it’s a love song, but not a happy-clappy love song. You’ve got guitars, a beat that comes and goes when it feels like it, and if I was will.i.am I’d be a bit upset at only being billed as the featured artist, because he’s an equal partner in this. Even given the way that the words and music seem to have been brought together in a shotgun marriage sort of method, I actually really like this one. Perhaps it’s because it does sound so different that it works, there’s a thought.