STARLIGHT

Matt Cardle

The first seven seconds of this song are actually quite good, but then Mr Cardle starts singing and it falls down from that point on. Now, that may sound to you as though I hate his singing but that’s not the case. In fact, I respect him more for singing with an English accent; I’ve never understood why pop singers who’ve never travelled further than Bedford find it necessary to affect a transatlantic drawl whenever they start warbling. What’s more, although he won The X-Factor he’s a pretty decent singer. No, the issue here is, as it regularly seems to be with sub-par pop songs, with the words. Allow me to demonstrate by using this song lyric that happens to be lying around: "Hearts are racing at the speed of light." Notwithstanding the issue that if a heart really did beat that fast, then things were unlikely to end well for said heart’s owner, it’s also a staggeringly naff opening line. Far from ditching it though, the songwriters have used it as a jumping-off point for a song that then gradually descends into Coldplay-anthem territory. Now, that wouldn’t be so bad if Coldplay didn’t already exist, but they do and because they do this song sounds like something Coldplay would do, although they wouldn’t necessarily do it better. When we get down to the root of the problem with this song, I can’t see a reason for Starlight to exist. It doesn’t sound particularly new, it doesn’t have anything to say that hasn’t been said before (possibly even on Matt Cardle’s own album) and it’s proof that you can have a decent singing voice, but if the song’s not up to the job you’re in trouble.

SHAKE

Little Boots

There’s something to be said for songs that have loads of echo effects added to them; for one thing they sound much bigger than they are. Shake is a giant warehouse of a song, but if you took out the echo you’d be lucky to get much more than a greenhouse, so Little Boots definitely made the right decision there. It’s very dancey, it’s one of the best songs I’ve heard in a while (since last week, in fact) and it also has the title seemingly chanted by a Smash Martian robot, so what’s not to like? Nothing, that’s what.