Well, you missed a great show last night! We played the following : 


Biffy Clyro - Booooom Blast & Ruin (Only Revolutions)
Life In Film - Sorry


Deep Purple - Knocking At Your Back Door (Perfect Strangers)


Brian Eno - 2 Forms Of Anger (Small Craft On a Milk Sea)


Tim Berg - Seek Bromance
Raghav - So Much


Fleetwood Mac - Sentimental Lady (Bare Trees)
Rolling Stones - 19th Nervous Breakdown


The Fab Four Freakout : 


Peter Gabriel - Strawberry Fields Forever (All This and World War II)
Beatles - Sexy Sadie (The Beatles)
Beatles - Money (With the Beatles)
Beatles - The Inner Light


Pet Shop Boys - Together


Esben & the Witch - Warpath


Rumer - Aretha (Seasons Of My Soul)
KT Tunstall - Difficulty (Tiger Suit)


Amy Winehouse - It's My Party


...and this week's UK top 5 : 


5). Alexis Jordan - Happiness (-2)
4). McFly ft. Taio Cruz - Shine a Light (new)
3). Katy Perry - Firework (+1)
2). Take That - The Flood (new)
1). Rihanna - Only Girl (In the World) (non-mover)


TOP 5 ANALYSIS and REVIEW


It looks like the new-release onslaught has begun, and it won't let up until just before Christmas. This week, the top 5 sees two new entries, as the top song stays put and another continues a slow creep higher. 


Alexis Jordan's "Happiness" is rapidly becoming one of my favorite tracks of the year. It's just easygoing enough to not be a shock to the system, but it's also beautifully done, with sharp production, keen instrumentation, and a remarkable vocal. It's dropped a couple of places to number 5 this week, but since it wasn't even expected to stay in the top 5 this week, that's not bad. 


I like Alexis' tuneful humming, and I like how the track builds on the vocals to become a tour-de-force by the end. Why hasn't this song become a mainstream hit in the USA? Maybe it's time is still coming . . . 


I give "Happiness" a 9 on the England Swings scale of 1-10.


I wish I could say that McFly has vastly improved their lot by branching out into the sort of pop/R&B stuff that's so popular these days, but "Shine a Light", coming in at number 4 this week as a new entry, just doesn't do it for me. All the elements are there : the synth bass line, the nice piano antics, and Taio Cruz, but the whole thing just sounds pieced together - it's missing an organic oomph that would put it over the edge from prefab to fab. Props to McFly for trying something different, but I can't go any higher than a 6 for this one. 


Katy Perry slides up another space to number 3 this week with "Firework", and I'm nonplussed to notice that the song made a huge jump - from number 29 to number 10 - on the American charts this week. 


See the review of the Katy Perry album that I wrote a couple of weeks ago to gain some insight into where this artist is going (or, really, standing still). That said, "Firework" is ultra-processed, sung occasionally out of tune, and slick to the point of having no friction at all.


Except it DOES. The hook of the song is good enough to overcome all of the above, and I hate myself for liking it. Damn you, Katy Perry and your legion of handlers! I give the song a 7.5.


And what vision is this we see at number 2 on the British charts? Could it be . . . ? Yes! It's the re-formed Take That with the first and much anticipated single from their new album, and they've been Robbiefied! 


As a matter of fact, they've gone beyond "incorporating" Robbie back into the group, they've let him take over the whole thing. Yep, this is Robbie with his new backing band, and he never sounded better, or made less sense. Just what the @#%@ is this song about?! Very much a slightly bizarre Robbie Williams song, "The Flood" is just what the doctor ordered to revive the career of Mr. Williams, but it's at the expense of Misters Barlow, Orange, and the others whose names I can never remember. 


So why didn't this event of a tune make it to the top? Well, maybe because of exactly what I mentioned above - it's a Robbie Williams song, and those haven't gained much traction in recent years. I mean, "Wash your mouths out/Or you'll find yourself floating home"? Huh?


But the backing vocals are really good. After six or seven listens to the track, I'm beginning to like it, but it's defiinitely not one for the ages. I give it a 7.


So the world-beater Rihanna ends up once again at the coveted top spot with "Only Girl (In the World)", which is a bit like her monster hit "Umbrella", only, y'know, not as good. The beat is mechanical, and the song reminds me of nothing so much as a typical track by - um, Kylie Minogue. It's all so motorik that the song has performed for the worse in America, reaching the top ten, but with a number one tantalizingly out of reach. 


The song is, at least, a return to the dance club sort of stuff that Rihanna does best. Please, no more "Russian Roulette". 


I give it a 6 this week.


There will be an album review tomorrow in this here space. 
3/23/2012 07:59:13 am

Nice one info, thanks

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