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ALABAMA
3 - REACHIN’
Best known for doing the theme tune to the Sopranos TV show, the Alabama
3 are back with a heady mix of funky beats, gruff vocals and a gospel
chorus. The splash of harmonica and the tinkling of a blues piano
is a nice touch of colour, but there’s not enough in this record to
keep you interested for too long. It’s also not laid back enough to
be real ‘cooooollll’ in the way the Fun Lovin’ Criminals would work
it either. Mind you, the B-Side, “The River Unbroken” is a Jack Daniels
fueled piece of laid back country blues, with a great Hammond organ
solo - which in my humble opinion would’ve been a better lead track.
DELTA GOODREM - BORN TO TRY
She’s the latest export from the Aussie ‘Neighbours’ stable, hoping
to follow in the footsteps of Kylie, and Holly Vallance. Unfortunately,
if this track is to go by, she can look at being on the same career
path as Stefan Dennis, and Gayle and Gillian Blakeney. This is a bland
ballad-by-numbers, which Leann Rimes or Oleta Adams have done a dozen
times. No doubt, she’s got a good voice, but give her something decent
to sing, for Bouncer’s sake!
RHIANNA - I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU
The old Stevie Wonder tune, given a facelift for the noughties. A
great song in the first place, which would be very hard to ruin, but
this young lady has given it a darn good go. It’s not her voice, which
is very warm, but what is up with that production? You get the feeling
producers were sat in the studio looking for a bass sound deeper than
the bowels of hell itself - which is fine if you’re making a banging
dance-floor anthem - which this ain’t. The bottom heavy sound just
detracts from what is a decent tune in the first place.
TURIN BRAKES - PAINKILLER
Not to be confused with the Judas Priest track - this is a great slice
of acoustic rock which puts to shame the lame recent effort of Oasis
“Songbird”. But then again nobody’s perfect, and the only bug bear
I have here, are the throwaway verses, which just seem to be slapdashed
in any old how, just to get us to the chorus. But what a chorus! -
with the capacity to bring a smile to even the most grumpy of faces
- it sings to you like the perfect hangover cure. Eliminating all
the fuzzy-ness of the morning after with it’s clear-as-a-bell production,
and washing away the cobwebs with it’s lyrics, “Summer rain, drifting
down your face again…” Painkiller? You betcha…
MELANIE C - HERE IT COMES AGAIN
The most successful of the Spice’s to go solo returns, with a stylish
slice of guitar driven pop, penned with little help from former ‘Blow
Monkey’ Dr.Robert. A simplistic arpeggio guitar riff opens proceedings,
but draws you in with a clever chord twist. With Mel’s voice it’s
always been a case of you either like it or hate it - and here it’s
used to it’s full potential - delicate in the verses, powerful in
the crescendo of the chorus. Being formerly Sporty Spice, there’s
still a stigma attached to her music, which is a shame, because if
this had been sung by Robbie Williams we’d probably be looking at
a Number 1 record.
PLACEBO - THE BITTER END
They’ve been through that “difficult third album” stage, and emerged
out the other side, but this attempt to distort their own sound falls
disappointingly short. It opens with a Molko riff and vocal sneer
which could be lifted from any of the their past studio offerings,
but goes all Duran Duran in the chorus, by embelishing the thrust
of the guitars, with a poncy piece of piano work. It’s not until the
closing 40 seconds that the track really rocks - overlayed with fuzzbox
vocals and plenty of extra guitars - but by then the damage of that
‘plinky-plonky’ bit has already been done.
Matt Lee |
