Pop music often searches to find the eternal in the everyday. Songs attempt to freeze time around one emotional moment - I haven't got enough money! I wish I could wish on a falling star! Girls are sexy! - and to make sure it's communicated to as many people as possible, it'll often take place in the most mundane of locations: a street, the house you grew up in, a nightclub.
It's partly because gems often shine brighter when placed against a dull background, and partly a way to bring extra reality to the situation, so it feels truer. In the same way that we all tend to sit up and take a bit more notice of a film that says that it is based on a true story.
This is why it's a good idea to write a song with a bike in it. It's not just a fun hook to hang a lyric from, it speaks to our inner child. Most of us have ridden a bike, right? Well this sings to the part of us that yearns for a simpler life, free of boring distractions.
In fact (drumroll) it's not just a pop song, it's an integral part of the cycle of life (TISH!).
(Here's the video. It's cuuute.)
Now, having made such a fuss about the rightness of the lyrical conceit - props are due to Dave McCabe from the Zutons, who also wrote Mark's biggest hit 'Valerie', as sung by Amy Winehouse etc etc - it's important to say the finished article doesn't quite match the grandeur and brilliance of 'Bang Bang Bang'. There's no double-speed chorus, no Q-Tip, and no French bits. But that's OK, lots of songs aren't as good as 'Bang Bang Bang'. MOST songs aren't as good as 'Bang Bang Bang', in fact. 'Bang Bang Bang' is a peak, most other songs are the bits that hold the peak up.
So, instead of concentrating on what isn't here, let's look at what is. Why, look! It's Kyle from the View! And Spank Rock! And Kyle's singing about the freedom of a pair of wheels on the open road through his trademark cotton-wool gob. And he's got this freewheeling skippy-hop beat to do it over. Spanky brings the jibber-jabber, claiming not to understand why people prefer cars to bicycles. It is officially ALL FUN.
Even having to endure Kyle singing "that can't be the way that I roll" as if he's trying to work in some urban lingo to fit better with the funk, is no hassle at all. There's nothing you can't just shrug off, bowling along to a song like this, and I speak as someone who has actually listened to it while riding a bike. Which has to be the ultimate test.
Naturally it passed, with flying colours. I pulled a wheelie when it finished too. Fell over.
 Download: Out now
www.markronson.co.uk
BBC Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
Popped Music says: "This song is cheesy, there is no doubt about it."
Resonance says: "Too laid back to be exciting, and too distracting to be laid back."
Glasswerk says: "The Scots rocker lends a languid element to the otherwise sprightly song which wheels along like a lost psychedelic pop classic. " |
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True fact: This song made Fearne Cotton cry. Out of her EYES, dammit!
It all happened on the Sky 1 sort-of-like-the-X-Factor-but-the-judges-are-all-off-Later-With-Jools musical talent show Must Be The Music. You all know the setup by now. Three judges, a big audition arena show, a presenter backstage talking to the acts before they go on. Two girls walk up to Fearne, who is basically the 'Dermot' in this situation. One is called Katie Pepper and the other is called Emma, she plays the piano, hence the name. They are from Manchester and they are excited and nervous.
Emma reveals she has had some troubles in her life, and that making music with Katie has helped her pull herself together. They then take to the stage. Then The Magic happens:
Instead of performing an off-key version of an Alicia Keys song, or even a bland re-write of an even blander recent pop ballad, Emma strikes up some dour chords, and then Katie opens her mouth and sings up a great big bruise. A massive black-eye of a song. An 'Everybody Hurts' where literally everybody hurts. (Can't show you the video. Ad cooties.)
I don't mean it's painful to listen to, not in the sense that they're doing anything musically wrong, at any rate. It's just...blimey that's an unsettling noise to hear coming out of a televised human face, isn't it? Katie's voice is closer to that of Antony (of ...and the Johnsons fame) than, say, Leona Lewis, and although the song they're playing is a little clunky and unvarnished (by the standards of yer slick Top 40 acts), it's clearly a thing of substance, especially when sung like that.
Outside of the viciously-pigeonholed TV context, it would probably make less of an impact, a slightly wonky song, earnestly sung, by a lady with a boyishly deep, but operatically huge voice. But stick it in the middle of a silly old TV talent show and WHOAH!
The looks of shock and delight on everyone's faces are perhaps similar to those you would see if you organised an imaginary dinner party, where you and your friends have dressed up smart, and gathered around an immaculately-laid table, only to spend the entire evening pretending to enjoy a sumptuous feast (more ghost beef, vicar?), with all the not-really-there trimmings...and then a latecomer arrives with real home-made trifle.
It might not be the finest trifle money can buy: some of the jelly hasn't set properly and the custard is a little runny, and there are peanuts and raisins sprinkled all over the top, as a radical garnish. But you can't deny that it is actual food.
Download: Out now
www.facebook.com/pepperandpianoofficial
(Fraser McAlpine) |
How much YOWSA! can a single campaign sustain without causing serious injury? First the revelation came that the occasionally slightly doughy, occasionally skinny McFly boys have been spending some SERIOUS time in the gym, to the extent that they're all now super-buff. They chose to reveal this fact by - how else? - posing nude on the cover of Attitude magazine.
It was, and is, quite an eye-catching image. Grown women have been known to spend a LOT of time examining this picture with a thoughtful look on their eyes. Grown men too. It's that kind of a picture. And that's before anyone knew there was a sexy vampire video too.
Then there's the shock revelation that they've incorporated those saturated club synths into their pop-rock sound, courtesy of Dallas Austin, who produced their new album. I say 'shock' as if the idea of a pop band using an established pop noise in their pop music was actually a shocking thing, knowing full well it's really not. But nevertheless, it's an unexpected sonic innovation, especially as they're not being used to push the band into Enter Shikari / Pendulum dance-rock territory.
There's even talk of a Taio Cruz-penned McFly single coming soon. I know! (Here's the video. Old McDougie had a vampire, ee-aye ee-aye OW!)
There again, what's so surprising about McFly being into modern pop music? They're a modern pop band. It's not like their speciality was chanelling the spirit of the '60s, or tipping the wink to original punk rock. If they're going to develop - and BOY have they developed, right girls? - they've got to get with the times, daddio! Why the chorus alone features two melodic things which can be directly traced to other recent pop hits.
There's the wordless refrain which starts the song and boosts the choruses, which is surely just a trimmed-down version of the one in 'Bad Romance', and aren't those "whu-HOO!" bits a bit, well, Scouting For Girls-y? Yes, yes they are.
Of course, this isn't some desperate attempt to appear relevant to the kids of today, now the bulk of people who bought 'Five Colours In Her Hair' have gone to university. See the look of flinty determination in their eyes? This is a show of strength, a flexing of musical muscles to match the actual muscles.
It's a snoot-cocking exercise to show the doubters that there's life in the young dogs yet. They have battled long and hard, and now they are here to claim their kingdom. As one, the band have risen, beating a fist to their breastplates in salute to their fallen comrades, and shouting "WE ARE McFLY, HEAR OUR MIGHTY POP MUSIC AND QUAKE!"
Of course, Lady Gaga could eat them for breakfast, but that's by the by.
Download: Out now
www.mcflyofficial.com
BBC Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
Muzic Junkie says: "While Party Girl is a departure in sound for McFly, it still sounds like a McFly track somehow."
FizzyPop says: "Let's face it, McFly are the Girls Aloud of boybands."
Beehive City says: "I have to admit I thought that the band would bubble under fairly quickly after they parted company with Island Records in 2007." |
Picture the scene: There's a heated discussion taking place in the middle of a record company board room. Execs are hotly debating the release date of a new single, so that it can gain maximum exposure, reach as many ears as is humanly possibly and therefore drive people to the shops - real or virtual - in order to spend, spend, and once again spend.
The song plays quietly in the background, although it clearly has not been made with quiet play in mind, which is proving to be a distraction. It is a boisterous, Caribbean-flavoured thing, boasting a childishly simple, sing-song chorus.
It also boasts a man called Laza shouting incoherently about seizures and propellers, and a relentless skull-crusher dancehall beat, played as if a Troll was attempting to swat a swarm of cocky gnats off the EastEnders drum kit with his fists. It is deliriously happy, to the point of being simple-minded, and conjures up instant images of warmth and sunshiney freedom in everyone that hears it.
And it is this last point which is causing the trouble. (Here's the video. It's basically Eric Prydz for girls)
On one side of the table, people are shouting that a record this summary needs to be out in the height of, y'know, SUMMER. They're yelling that it's a perfect soundtrack for outdoor barbecues and beach parties, and as such, needs to be available to buy at the beginning of the holiday season. A song this happy, they fume, is perfect for the end of term, with long weeks of hot nothing stretching out before you, rather than the beginning of a new school year, with new shoes that pinch, new uniforms that itch, and nothing but extra homework, conkers and the faint promise of Christmas to look forward to.
On the other side, arms tightly folded, faces impassive, are the record company's corporate wing, the brand-holders. Their argument is far less emotional. They simply point to a copy of a TV listings magazine with a big picture of Simon Cowell on the front, and the headline, "IT'S BACK!", then re-fold their arms and wait.
There is then some quiet discussion and a brief glace at a contract which appears to have been signed with red liquid, and the debate is over. Autumn it is.
 Download: 5th September
www.alexandraburkeofficial.com
BBC Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
Popjustice says: "We have liked all the Alexandra Burke singles so far and we like this one too."
Pop Boi says: "The new video takes the cake on cheese-factor"
Swear I'm Not Paul says: "It's chirpy but banal, and extremely unlistenable. Repeated listens only make it worse. " |
OK, quick discussion topic: what's the best way to tell if you like a song which sounds, on first listen, like a bit of a dog's breakfast?
Is it that you find yourself still pondering it, some minutes after it has finished? Is it that you find you have to immediately go back and listen again? Or are you so overwhelmed that you have to go and put something familiar and soothing on instead? Is it that it makes you laugh? Or cry? Or be sick?
For me, it is simply whether I find I have turned the volume up all the way through the song, all the better to pay closer attention to what is going on. This is so that I can try and divine the heartbeat of the thing, to work out what the people who wrote it think is good about it. To do this you've sometimes got to wade through some of the production murk and ignore the more bizarre bits.
With this song, I ran out of up to turn it before the second chorus. By the end I couldn't tell if my internal joyclaps were enjoyment or relief that the ordeal was finally over. (Here's the video. I think you need a better painter too. This one is messy.)
I have since revised my opinion and am delighted to report that it is enjoyment all the way.
The great thing about this is it is proof that we've got the bonkers Alesha back from the evil clutches of Those Who Would Seek To Capitalise On Her Strictly Success By Making Her Into A Fully Rounded Family Entertainer. It's time to celebrate her mad brilliance. She was mad and brilliant in Mis-Teeq. Her early solo singles - 'Lipstick' and 'Knockdown' - were both mad and brilliant. Then she had a brief - or possibly ongoing, it's hard to tell right now - dalliance with mainstream success, and apart from 'The Boy Does Nothing', the madness and the brilliance was in less abundance, and this felt like a shame. But now it is back.
OH BOY IS IT BACK.
Listen to the blessed thing! It's all over the shop! Ten million drummers giving it the full paradiddle apocalypse, and I'm not even sure if all of them are playing in time. Meanwhile Alesha is singing some bits and shouting some bits and going "whaaat?" in a manner which will NOT delight Arlene Phillips fans. She's got some nice harmonies to do, and there are fragments of a complete song being kicked about, but nothing is being treated with due respect. It's fantastic!
Yes, Destiny's Child and High School Musical (and the movie Drumline, from which this is sampled) have beaten her to the marching band drummer gimmick, but they were concerned with respectfully putting that sound into a different musical context. Alesha and her gang just want to rudely plonk themselves on top, fire up the synth brass, and blow off in everyone's faces.
And best of all, there is no possibility that you could confuse this song with anything else in the charts this year. And for that reason alone it deserves top honours.
Not that Alesha cares. She's way too busy throwing toy spaniels into a bucket of gravy with her face, or something.
 Download: Out now
www.myspace.com/aleshamusic
BBC Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
So Feminine says: "The colourful, foot-stomping new hit, 'Drummer Boy'... is unlike any other record you'll hear this year."
Madnews says: "I have never rated Alesha as an artist and never well. Her music just does nothing for me. But she seems like a nice woman.."
Kid With The Specs says: "The song has completely grown on me and is very different from everything Alesha has done before." |
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