To everyone who's not a signed up fan, N-Dubz are a bit of a joke. They (And by they, you're usually talking about Dino "Dappy" Contostavlos and Richard "Fazer" Rawson, not Tulisa) dress like they've been left in Urban Outfitters with the lights off, make headlines for the wrong reasons all the time and yet both are keen fishers and love flying model planes. They make hip hop for pre teens. Hormone hop, if you like.
Hormone hop is though a profitable place to pitch yourself though, N-Dubz have shifted over a million albums so far and are just about to release their third, entitled "Love.Live.Life."
They've been working with Salaam Remi on their new record, which is quite a coup and perhaps a sign they're looking to be taken a bit more seriously. Previously Dappy and Fazer had produced the albums themselves and it's a surprise to see them handing over control to a third party. Remi has an excellent track record though, he's worked extensively with Nas, a rapper even non rap fans love and was the first person to work with Amy Winehouse, producing her debut album.
The band have talked up a sonic change, especially as they're being geared up to have a big go at the US market this time round. They want new fans, older fans and to see their albums in the hands of adults who aren't just buying it as gifts for their children.
Their comeback single "Girls" doesn't show any sign of a change though as it starts in the way every N-Dubz seems to, with a blast of "Na na....niiiigghhhh" giving way to a garage band beat.
Lyrically, it's no more refined either, with the opening line of "Girls, I fuck wid dem, I dan't usually fall in luv wid em."
Remi has had some effect though, especially when you compare this track to their early stuff. When Dappy and Fazer controlled everything, the tracks were a lot more theatrical and dramatic, with big crescendos and very clearly defined choruses. "Girls" is a much steadier track, with the beat being allowed to develop as the song progresses.
Is it enough of a departure to win over any new fans? No, it's not. The lyrical posturing is still there, as is the clunking hip hop cliche of singing about batting armies of girls away. The beat and structure might be subtler and a little more elegant, but love them or hate them, this is still N-Dubz and they won't have anyone reappraising them just yet.
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Single #14: B.O.B Featuring Rivers Cuomo - Magic
It's hardly unusual for hip hop tracks to have collaborators all over them or to borrow a famous pair of lungs for their choruses, but Bobby Ray Simmons Jr or B.O.B to you and me, has made more use of guest vocalists than most.
His first track "Nothin On You" featured the vocal talents of rocketing soul singer Bruno Mars in its gentle litlting hook and his second release and breakthrough hit, "Airplanes" crossed over into a whole new market, thanks to Paramore's Hayley Williams heartfelt chorus.
Both singles did superbly, with "Airplanes" in particular sticking around in the charts for nigh on three months.
Third time out, B.O.B has turned to a more experienced man to supply the chorus. Weezer frontman and famous mental person Rivers Cuomo, who's approaching his twentieth anniversary in the music industry, sings the catchy as you like chorus of "Magic".
It's not a bad track, full of bouncy keyboards and it's got a hook that's very hummable. Cuomo is at his poppy best, with the charm and enthuiaism that make Weezer such a likeable rock band all over this track.
It has a summer party feel to it and is the kind of track you'd think Travie McCoy would be proud to put his name to.
The trouble is for B.O.B, the best and only memorable bit in this song is the chorus. The rap, which is delivered at a ferocious pace, is rendered forgettable by the track's glossy production and as a result, it'll pass most people by.
This isn't the first time this has happened. "Airplanes" might have stuck around for a long time, but that was because of Williams' vocal and the impact of Paramore's ever widening fanbase. B.O.B's verses served as nothing but build up, with his rhymes reduced to bum notes against William's earnest vocal delivery.
On each one of his releases, B.O.B has basically been reduced to a guest artist on his own song. He lets his collaborator become the track's focus and dominate the listener's attention, so whether his words are worth listening to or not, they're buried in the background.
B.O.B needs to strike out on his own next time round and see the public responds.
He was due to do so on his next track single "Don't Let Me Fall", which is a solo track in its album version, but guess what? It's being remixed as we speak to feature rising star Heather Vesey. Someone said once that if you something isn't broken, there's not much point in repairing it. Chances are, B.O.B's label have been guided by the same logic.
If you read the lyrics to "Airplanes", you'll learn of a man craving to go back to a time when he wasn't famous. If he's not careful or he runs out of luck in finding collaborators, his wish will be granted.
Check it out here:
His first track "Nothin On You" featured the vocal talents of rocketing soul singer Bruno Mars in its gentle litlting hook and his second release and breakthrough hit, "Airplanes" crossed over into a whole new market, thanks to Paramore's Hayley Williams heartfelt chorus.
Both singles did superbly, with "Airplanes" in particular sticking around in the charts for nigh on three months.
Third time out, B.O.B has turned to a more experienced man to supply the chorus. Weezer frontman and famous mental person Rivers Cuomo, who's approaching his twentieth anniversary in the music industry, sings the catchy as you like chorus of "Magic".
It's not a bad track, full of bouncy keyboards and it's got a hook that's very hummable. Cuomo is at his poppy best, with the charm and enthuiaism that make Weezer such a likeable rock band all over this track.
It has a summer party feel to it and is the kind of track you'd think Travie McCoy would be proud to put his name to.
The trouble is for B.O.B, the best and only memorable bit in this song is the chorus. The rap, which is delivered at a ferocious pace, is rendered forgettable by the track's glossy production and as a result, it'll pass most people by.
This isn't the first time this has happened. "Airplanes" might have stuck around for a long time, but that was because of Williams' vocal and the impact of Paramore's ever widening fanbase. B.O.B's verses served as nothing but build up, with his rhymes reduced to bum notes against William's earnest vocal delivery.
On each one of his releases, B.O.B has basically been reduced to a guest artist on his own song. He lets his collaborator become the track's focus and dominate the listener's attention, so whether his words are worth listening to or not, they're buried in the background.
B.O.B needs to strike out on his own next time round and see the public responds.
He was due to do so on his next track single "Don't Let Me Fall", which is a solo track in its album version, but guess what? It's being remixed as we speak to feature rising star Heather Vesey. Someone said once that if you something isn't broken, there's not much point in repairing it. Chances are, B.O.B's label have been guided by the same logic.
If you read the lyrics to "Airplanes", you'll learn of a man craving to go back to a time when he wasn't famous. If he's not careful or he runs out of luck in finding collaborators, his wish will be granted.
Check it out here:
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Single #13: Rihanna - Only Girl (In The World)
Rihanna is probably the finest pop star in the world at the moment. That's pop star defined as arena filling, every single a hit type pop star. There are better artists making better records, but as far as household names go, Rihanna rules supreme at the moment.
That's entirely down to her choice of songs, as she mixes it up with great aplomb, excelling in a variety of styles. She can do soulful ballads like "Take A Bow" and "Rehab" without making you reach for the sick bucket. She can do slick, posturing R&B superbly, especially "Rude Boy" and "Hard". And, most crucially, she pick you a hit, like, well, "Umbrella."
She also has an enviable work ethic, with two albums in the last two years. The promotional singles for her last record "Rated R" have actually bled into the build to her new long player "Loud" with both "Hard" and "Rude Boy" still a common site on many music channels.
Her new track, the first UK release from her new album, is "Only Girl (In The World)" and, once again, it's a sonic departure from her previous record.
Much of "Rated R" was hard edged poppy R&B, full of bite and swagger, with production from UK dance duo Chase and Status and Ne-Yo amongst others. It was fun, playful and packed with singles that seem to bait the listener, saying throughout "Am I supposed to be impressed?" It worked a treat, three million sales a treat, but it's not a vein that Rihanna has decided she wants to extend to two albums worth of stuff.
"Only Girl (In The World)" is built like a dance record. Or, more specifically, like the kind of track that ruled the Ibiza dancefloors in the early 1990s. It has something of Snap's "Rhythm Is A Dancer" or Urban Cookie Collective in its make up, with earnest vocals playing out over a pulsating keyboard refrain.
It probably sits best in Rihanna's back catalogue alongside "SOS" and "Pon Da Replay" and it's a little bit of a let down following on from her "Rated R" stuff. She had an aloofness to her image that was worth pursuing and this sounds a little needier, keener to please and to played on every sticky dancefloor on a Saturday night.
"Only Girl (In The World)" actually feels a bit retro, which, for a girl who was always quietly challenging in who she worked with and songs she released, is a something of a disapointment. This track could have been recorded by any number of acts, including people like Cascada. Though it's still a decent tune and won't have people switching their car radios off, it doesn't have the bite of "Hard" or the playful teasing quality of "Rude Boy" and suffers for it.
She can, has and will do better than this.
Disagree? Video's here....
That's entirely down to her choice of songs, as she mixes it up with great aplomb, excelling in a variety of styles. She can do soulful ballads like "Take A Bow" and "Rehab" without making you reach for the sick bucket. She can do slick, posturing R&B superbly, especially "Rude Boy" and "Hard". And, most crucially, she pick you a hit, like, well, "Umbrella."
She also has an enviable work ethic, with two albums in the last two years. The promotional singles for her last record "Rated R" have actually bled into the build to her new long player "Loud" with both "Hard" and "Rude Boy" still a common site on many music channels.
Her new track, the first UK release from her new album, is "Only Girl (In The World)" and, once again, it's a sonic departure from her previous record.
Much of "Rated R" was hard edged poppy R&B, full of bite and swagger, with production from UK dance duo Chase and Status and Ne-Yo amongst others. It was fun, playful and packed with singles that seem to bait the listener, saying throughout "Am I supposed to be impressed?" It worked a treat, three million sales a treat, but it's not a vein that Rihanna has decided she wants to extend to two albums worth of stuff.
"Only Girl (In The World)" is built like a dance record. Or, more specifically, like the kind of track that ruled the Ibiza dancefloors in the early 1990s. It has something of Snap's "Rhythm Is A Dancer" or Urban Cookie Collective in its make up, with earnest vocals playing out over a pulsating keyboard refrain.
It probably sits best in Rihanna's back catalogue alongside "SOS" and "Pon Da Replay" and it's a little bit of a let down following on from her "Rated R" stuff. She had an aloofness to her image that was worth pursuing and this sounds a little needier, keener to please and to played on every sticky dancefloor on a Saturday night.
"Only Girl (In The World)" actually feels a bit retro, which, for a girl who was always quietly challenging in who she worked with and songs she released, is a something of a disapointment. This track could have been recorded by any number of acts, including people like Cascada. Though it's still a decent tune and won't have people switching their car radios off, it doesn't have the bite of "Hard" or the playful teasing quality of "Rude Boy" and suffers for it.
She can, has and will do better than this.
Disagree? Video's here....
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
Single #12: Diana Vickers - My Wicked Heart
Most musicians are pretty lax about letting younger artists raid their back catalogues for inspiration, so it takes something to bring a band to the brink of legal action against a young pop starlet. But get ready, it's all set to be the Red Hot Chili Peppers vs Diana Vickers in a court of law soon.
The two tracks in question are the Chilis classic 1991 track “Under The Bridge” and Vickers’ new single “My Wicked Heart.” The choruses of which are so similar, it’s borderline laughable. Vickers hasn’t helped herself with her response to it either, admitting she’d listened to it the day before and had noticed the similarity. There’s only one dignified out of this for Vickers, and that’s handing over all the royalties from the track to the Chilis. Either that or lose it court, owe costs and look really stupid.
This is out of step, because, in her fledgling pop career so far, Vickers has actually made some pretty smart choices. She’s worked with Guy Sigsworth, who’s half of Frou Frou with Imogen Heap on some of the tracks from her debut record “Songs From The Tainted Cherry Treee” as well as Ellie Goulding, Nerina Pallot and Starsmith. She’s made the impression of someone who wants to follow more in the vein of Goulding and Florence Welsh than of Leona Lewis or Alexandra Burke, but thus far, she’s only succeeded in putting out watered down, smoothed out versions of the people she’s worked with. And this has never been more evident than on “My Wicked Heart.”
Even if you leave aside the plagiarism, this is one of the weakest singles released this year. It goes nowhere and does nothing. There’s never any momentum created and Vickers not so subtle attempt to channel a bit of Florence Welch’s taste for the bombastic, never sparks even the smallest speck of feeling. At least Burke and Lewis are slick and efficient in what they do, Vickers is just hiding behind a smokescreen of pseudo indie to distract from the fact her songs aren’t good enough. Even the horn section, chucked in half way through the track, can’t stop this sounding like a pompous bit of dirge.
There’s no point comparing it to “Under The Bridge”, that is a beautifully written, heartfelt pop song that will move people till the end of time, subtle drug references and all. This is a shoddy, half arsed piece of fluff, lacking in momentum and merit.
It doesn’t matter who you work with or how you dress, you’ll get nowhere if you churn out sub standard songs and this is a prime example of that.
Disagree? Video's here:
The two tracks in question are the Chilis classic 1991 track “Under The Bridge” and Vickers’ new single “My Wicked Heart.” The choruses of which are so similar, it’s borderline laughable. Vickers hasn’t helped herself with her response to it either, admitting she’d listened to it the day before and had noticed the similarity. There’s only one dignified out of this for Vickers, and that’s handing over all the royalties from the track to the Chilis. Either that or lose it court, owe costs and look really stupid.
This is out of step, because, in her fledgling pop career so far, Vickers has actually made some pretty smart choices. She’s worked with Guy Sigsworth, who’s half of Frou Frou with Imogen Heap on some of the tracks from her debut record “Songs From The Tainted Cherry Treee” as well as Ellie Goulding, Nerina Pallot and Starsmith. She’s made the impression of someone who wants to follow more in the vein of Goulding and Florence Welsh than of Leona Lewis or Alexandra Burke, but thus far, she’s only succeeded in putting out watered down, smoothed out versions of the people she’s worked with. And this has never been more evident than on “My Wicked Heart.”
Even if you leave aside the plagiarism, this is one of the weakest singles released this year. It goes nowhere and does nothing. There’s never any momentum created and Vickers not so subtle attempt to channel a bit of Florence Welch’s taste for the bombastic, never sparks even the smallest speck of feeling. At least Burke and Lewis are slick and efficient in what they do, Vickers is just hiding behind a smokescreen of pseudo indie to distract from the fact her songs aren’t good enough. Even the horn section, chucked in half way through the track, can’t stop this sounding like a pompous bit of dirge.
There’s no point comparing it to “Under The Bridge”, that is a beautifully written, heartfelt pop song that will move people till the end of time, subtle drug references and all. This is a shoddy, half arsed piece of fluff, lacking in momentum and merit.
It doesn’t matter who you work with or how you dress, you’ll get nowhere if you churn out sub standard songs and this is a prime example of that.
Disagree? Video's here:
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Single #11: Cheryl Cole - Promise This
For someone who’s often said the media make her life difficult, Cheryl Cole has been at best naïve, and at worst, very cynical, in the songs she’s chosen to release thus far.
Her first single outside of Girls Aloud, “Fight For This Love” was a righteous sounding pop song that told the listener that love with worth fighting for. Parallels with her personal life, were and remain, indisputable. So after her split with Ashley Cole last year and her many statements about her hatred of media intrusion, you’d think she might have chosen songs about subjects that could be less directly linked to her former husband. She hasn’t, especially as she’s picked the same songwriter who penned “Fight For This Love.” Wayne Wilkins, who’s also written for Natasha Bedingfield and Michelle Williams.
His latest creation, “Promise This”, the lead off single from her second album “Messy Little Raindrops” is a lot more low key than “Fight For This Love.” It doesn’t have either the instantaneousness of that track, which, whether you loved or hated the content, had a chorus that took hold in your brain like chewing gum to an oversized trainer. It’s also much less brash, less in your face.
The track is built like a classy piece of electro pop, much more low key than her previous work which had Will.I.Am’s bolshy, attention seeking production all over it. This is much less aggressive and more refined, with layered electronics and a gentle nagging bassline. It’s more nuanced and actually much much better. Comparisons are, of course, far and wide, with names from Kate Bush to Madonna in the mix. The best way to encapsulate this track though, is it’s the kind of thing Tori Amos might have written if she’d had an arena tour booked and really needed a number one hit.
“Promise This” also has some bizarre bits of French in the bridge, with Cole repeating the words “Alouette uette uette” which translates as “Skylark lark lark” throughout the track. Whether this is an attempt to be abstract or just what happened to fit the instrumental is unclear, but given Cole hasn’t given been too fussed in the past about making people look for deeper meanings in the songs she picks, it’s unlikely this is a deeply veiled dig at someone. To be fair, Cole and her bandmates told us not two years ago they couldn’t speak French, so it’s no surprise that this dabble en francais ends up with something quite so nonsensical.
This track is, for want of a better word, promising. It hints Cole may actually have carried through the nouse that made Girls Aloud such excellent choosers of songwriters into her solo career and she might end up selling records for other reasons then her likeable media persona. Names linked with her new album include Starsmith, Ne-Yo and Australian geniuses Nervo, all of which bodes pretty well.
Let’s hope her second album is full of songs about the first world war, ham sandwiches and Morocco, anything but more non-subtle references to her marriage. The tabloids’ appetite might be never ending, but for those of us who actually like music, enough was, quite a well ago, enough.
Her first single outside of Girls Aloud, “Fight For This Love” was a righteous sounding pop song that told the listener that love with worth fighting for. Parallels with her personal life, were and remain, indisputable. So after her split with Ashley Cole last year and her many statements about her hatred of media intrusion, you’d think she might have chosen songs about subjects that could be less directly linked to her former husband. She hasn’t, especially as she’s picked the same songwriter who penned “Fight For This Love.” Wayne Wilkins, who’s also written for Natasha Bedingfield and Michelle Williams.
His latest creation, “Promise This”, the lead off single from her second album “Messy Little Raindrops” is a lot more low key than “Fight For This Love.” It doesn’t have either the instantaneousness of that track, which, whether you loved or hated the content, had a chorus that took hold in your brain like chewing gum to an oversized trainer. It’s also much less brash, less in your face.
The track is built like a classy piece of electro pop, much more low key than her previous work which had Will.I.Am’s bolshy, attention seeking production all over it. This is much less aggressive and more refined, with layered electronics and a gentle nagging bassline. It’s more nuanced and actually much much better. Comparisons are, of course, far and wide, with names from Kate Bush to Madonna in the mix. The best way to encapsulate this track though, is it’s the kind of thing Tori Amos might have written if she’d had an arena tour booked and really needed a number one hit.
“Promise This” also has some bizarre bits of French in the bridge, with Cole repeating the words “Alouette uette uette” which translates as “Skylark lark lark” throughout the track. Whether this is an attempt to be abstract or just what happened to fit the instrumental is unclear, but given Cole hasn’t given been too fussed in the past about making people look for deeper meanings in the songs she picks, it’s unlikely this is a deeply veiled dig at someone. To be fair, Cole and her bandmates told us not two years ago they couldn’t speak French, so it’s no surprise that this dabble en francais ends up with something quite so nonsensical.
This track is, for want of a better word, promising. It hints Cole may actually have carried through the nouse that made Girls Aloud such excellent choosers of songwriters into her solo career and she might end up selling records for other reasons then her likeable media persona. Names linked with her new album include Starsmith, Ne-Yo and Australian geniuses Nervo, all of which bodes pretty well.
Let’s hope her second album is full of songs about the first world war, ham sandwiches and Morocco, anything but more non-subtle references to her marriage. The tabloids’ appetite might be never ending, but for those of us who actually like music, enough was, quite a well ago, enough.
Disagree, video's below:
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Single #10: Pixie Lott - Broken Arrow
Victoria Louise Lott. Nicknamed Pixie by her friends. Discovered after singing for record impresario L.A Reid and an arena filling pop star in waiting. Her first song “Mama Do”, a mix of neutered Winehouse soul pop and Pussycat Dolls sub sass went straight to number one. And ever since then she’s been trying to establish herself as a sort of less interesting Mariah Carey, which is hard to imagine, but think about it, all sludgy ballads and slick uptown doo wop, just like early Mariah.
Her debut album’s done quite well though, 600 000 selling well and her label think she’s got what it takes to make it Stateside. So they’re re-releasing said debut album “Turn It Up” as “Turn It Up Louder” (Do you see what they did there? Do you? It’s very clever) with a bunch of new tracks, much like the Saturdays did just weeks ago. To go with this new release, Lott has a new single out, bizarrely titled “Broken Arrow.”
This track is one of the worst you’ll hear this year. It’s boring, it’s pedestrian, it’s whiny and it is violently off putting from start to finish. It’s the kind of ballad Leona Lewis would reject for being too drippy.
Throughout the track she sounds like she’s permanently in tears. And not good heartbroken tears that drip poetry all over sad songs, the kind of tears little boys cry when they’re told they can’t have an ice cream. Whiny, cellophane like tears that induce irritation rather than empathy.
Her diction is appalling; most of the words seem to blend into each other, making it pretty difficult to decipher exactly what the words are. At least with Mariah you can hear every word clearly.
What exactly is a broken arrow anyway? It’s not particularly great symbolism. Most people don’t own arrows or if they did it’s unlikely they’d compare them to their lovesick hearts. Unless this was written for the last Robin Hood movie and rejected (you wouldn’t bet against that though) then it all seems a bit silly.
Pixie Lott is the Netto of pop stars. Compare her to Robyn. Actually that’s not fair; there are very few pop stars that are as talented as Robyn. Ok, compare her to Katy Perry, even the new stuff and it’s like comparing champagne with Skol lager. She’s so sub standard it’s almost embarrassing. And this track is the worst thing she’s ever done, which takes some doing.
Disagree? Video's below....
Her debut album’s done quite well though, 600 000 selling well and her label think she’s got what it takes to make it Stateside. So they’re re-releasing said debut album “Turn It Up” as “Turn It Up Louder” (Do you see what they did there? Do you? It’s very clever) with a bunch of new tracks, much like the Saturdays did just weeks ago. To go with this new release, Lott has a new single out, bizarrely titled “Broken Arrow.”
This track is one of the worst you’ll hear this year. It’s boring, it’s pedestrian, it’s whiny and it is violently off putting from start to finish. It’s the kind of ballad Leona Lewis would reject for being too drippy.
Throughout the track she sounds like she’s permanently in tears. And not good heartbroken tears that drip poetry all over sad songs, the kind of tears little boys cry when they’re told they can’t have an ice cream. Whiny, cellophane like tears that induce irritation rather than empathy.
Her diction is appalling; most of the words seem to blend into each other, making it pretty difficult to decipher exactly what the words are. At least with Mariah you can hear every word clearly.
What exactly is a broken arrow anyway? It’s not particularly great symbolism. Most people don’t own arrows or if they did it’s unlikely they’d compare them to their lovesick hearts. Unless this was written for the last Robin Hood movie and rejected (you wouldn’t bet against that though) then it all seems a bit silly.
Pixie Lott is the Netto of pop stars. Compare her to Robyn. Actually that’s not fair; there are very few pop stars that are as talented as Robyn. Ok, compare her to Katy Perry, even the new stuff and it’s like comparing champagne with Skol lager. She’s so sub standard it’s almost embarrassing. And this track is the worst thing she’s ever done, which takes some doing.
Disagree? Video's below....
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Singles #9: Mark Ronson & The Business Intl - The Bike Song
When Mark Ronson first started to be noted as someone other than a guy who DJed at gold plated parties, he initially tried to make it as a sort of Timbaland esque hip hop guru. When this didn’t work, he put his headphones back on and helped produce some incredibly successful albums, including Amy Winehouse’s “Back To Black” and Lily Allen’s “Alright, Still.” Credited with bringing something remarkable from both those artists, he stepped out in the spotlight again with “Version” his covers album which basically took 12 songs that were perfectly fine as they were and added some brass to them. Luke warmly received, but with some famous names appearing as guest vocalists, it sold quite well and quickly became coffee table fodder. He went away again after that and produced Adele, Estelle and Christina Aguilera, clearly becoming the go to guy if you want to sound like you’ve listened to a lot of motown records but have roughly 20 times the budget of the Supremes. Now he’s back with a new album “Record Collection” with, get this, all original material and another slew of guest vocalists, including former Pipette Rose Elinor Dougall, Boy George, once golden soul man D’Angelo and the View’s Kyle Falconer, who guests on new single “The Bike Song.”
What Ronson wants, what he desperately craves, is to be a tastemaker, a link for the public at large into the artists he loves. He tried it with Daniel Merriweather and one reasonable ballad aside, that didn’t work. Now he’s trying something slightly different, to take artists on the outskirts of the mainstream and bring them to wider attention and to take a few faded icons and restore them to glory. So why he’s chosen Falconer as the man to help him to do this is bizarre. The View were never any good, never. They had a couple of minor hits, but their second album (Yes, that’s right, they’ve released two albums) “Which Bitch” bombed so spectacularly they were lucky not to be dropped and Falconer’s drunken mess of a voice, which had charmed some people for precisely ten minutes, was reduced to a muddy wheeze. Even on “The Bike Song” in which he is charged with the simple task of saying “Gonna ride my bike until I get home” and with Ronson’s admittedly impressive way of cleaning up his voice, it’s still borderline inaudible. The rest of it is passable, in a sort of expensive advertising campaign way, sounding jaunty without ever making you think at all. Even when kooky rapper Spank Rock turns up things don’t really motor. It hums along, efficiently, but predictably. Meshing together the hip hop beats of Ronson’s early days with the layered cushioning of his later work, it’s got elements of Primal Scream, Beastie Boys and Groove Armada thrown in, without any of the spark and danger of those acts. On this and the early clips from the record, it just feels like Ronson is trying so desperately hard all the time. Trying to be cool, trying to be the kind of musician that critics talk about on late night review shows while still being played in supermarket check outs. It’s not working at the moment.
Sporting his new bleached haircut, Ronson actually now has much in common with another man with scarily blonde hair, Mr Hudson. He’s mates with the right people, he’s got half decent taste in music and ultimately, his future is behind the controls, not in front of the mic. Whether it’s enough for either of them to be just a producer is doubtful, but it’s where they’re both better off. There’s no shame in making other people sound good, it’s a skill few people possess, both men should be proud of it and strive to keep bringing the best out of the artists they work with.
Ronson‘s latest, along with the whole of his last record, is expensive lift music. He’s better off producing, helping to craft the rough cuts of bolshy boys and girls into shape. He should worry less about being famous and remember that people are still writing and talking about Phil Spector, Dr. Dre and Tony Visconti, and, if Ronson produces a few more records as good as “Back To Black” they’ll write about him too. If that comes off, this will at best be a footnote.
Disagree? Track is here:
What Ronson wants, what he desperately craves, is to be a tastemaker, a link for the public at large into the artists he loves. He tried it with Daniel Merriweather and one reasonable ballad aside, that didn’t work. Now he’s trying something slightly different, to take artists on the outskirts of the mainstream and bring them to wider attention and to take a few faded icons and restore them to glory. So why he’s chosen Falconer as the man to help him to do this is bizarre. The View were never any good, never. They had a couple of minor hits, but their second album (Yes, that’s right, they’ve released two albums) “Which Bitch” bombed so spectacularly they were lucky not to be dropped and Falconer’s drunken mess of a voice, which had charmed some people for precisely ten minutes, was reduced to a muddy wheeze. Even on “The Bike Song” in which he is charged with the simple task of saying “Gonna ride my bike until I get home” and with Ronson’s admittedly impressive way of cleaning up his voice, it’s still borderline inaudible. The rest of it is passable, in a sort of expensive advertising campaign way, sounding jaunty without ever making you think at all. Even when kooky rapper Spank Rock turns up things don’t really motor. It hums along, efficiently, but predictably. Meshing together the hip hop beats of Ronson’s early days with the layered cushioning of his later work, it’s got elements of Primal Scream, Beastie Boys and Groove Armada thrown in, without any of the spark and danger of those acts. On this and the early clips from the record, it just feels like Ronson is trying so desperately hard all the time. Trying to be cool, trying to be the kind of musician that critics talk about on late night review shows while still being played in supermarket check outs. It’s not working at the moment.
Sporting his new bleached haircut, Ronson actually now has much in common with another man with scarily blonde hair, Mr Hudson. He’s mates with the right people, he’s got half decent taste in music and ultimately, his future is behind the controls, not in front of the mic. Whether it’s enough for either of them to be just a producer is doubtful, but it’s where they’re both better off. There’s no shame in making other people sound good, it’s a skill few people possess, both men should be proud of it and strive to keep bringing the best out of the artists they work with.
Ronson‘s latest, along with the whole of his last record, is expensive lift music. He’s better off producing, helping to craft the rough cuts of bolshy boys and girls into shape. He should worry less about being famous and remember that people are still writing and talking about Phil Spector, Dr. Dre and Tony Visconti, and, if Ronson produces a few more records as good as “Back To Black” they’ll write about him too. If that comes off, this will at best be a footnote.
Disagree? Track is here:
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