Girls Aloud
Whole Lotta History
Polydor
“Baby I miss you,” croons Cheryl Aloud, “but tell me, is she really that beautiful?” And then the ‘spray dies and floats up to some kind of pop heaven where Debbie Harry patrols the Pearly Gates in knee-high go-go boots and Neil Tennant holds How To Write The Perfect Song seminars on the hour, every hour. Whole Lotta History, the fourth single from The Aloud’s (CDs) superb Chemistry album, is the girls’ best ballad yet. In fact, it’s the best girl-group slowie since All Saints‘ Never Ever for the ‘spray’s limited, HMV-sustaining money. The melody’s beautiful; the lyrics heartbreaking; and Nadine Aloud tackles those tough notes like an amphetamined-up Jonny Wilkinson who’s been locked in a tiny wooden cage for the past 48 hours. In this Smash Hits-free world, wherever will we be when they call it a day?
More singles reviews after the jump, from Kelly Clarkson, Be Your Own PET, KT Tunstall, Black Eyed Peas and Massive Attack…
Kelly Clarkson
Walk Away
Sony BMG
Who’d have guessed that Kelly Clarkson (CDs) would turn into such a
unit-shifter? The American Idol winner’s debut album proved as
appealing to the British public as Davina McCall‘s chatshow, but her
current Breakaway collection has sold like hash hotcakes in Newport. A
million of them. Walk Away, the album’s fourth single, is another slice
of melodic pop/rock that the ‘spray would love to hear on the radio
whilst cruising down the LA freeway. But, as ever, Clarkson’s voice – as
powerful as Alan Sugar in the boardroom, as gutsy as an egg-hungry
spermatozoon – makes it that little bit more interesting than it might
otherwise have been.
HECKLERSPRAY INDIE BAND FACT FILE #2: BE YOUR OWN PET
Print off and keep each week. Who needs the NME anyway?
Name: be your own PET (CDs) (note kooky approach towards capitalisation)
Single: Adventure
Label: Xl
Domicile: Nashville, Tennessee.
Current level of popularity: The band have scored three top
seventy-five hits in the last twelve months, the most recent of which,
Let’s Get Sandy, made no.51 in February.
Current state of play: The band’s self-titled debut album is released on March 27th.
Critical acclaim: Plaudits from Rolling Stone, legendary Glastonbury performance blah blah blah…
Key Words: “garage-rock”, “lo-fi”, “abrasive”, “Yeah Yeah Yeahs-esque”.
Suggested Conversation Piece: “All four members of Be Your Own Pet are teenagers, you know.”
The ‘Spray’s final word: Singer Jemina Pearl is an indie pin-up par
excellence. Expect to see her adorning the bedroom walls of lots of
skinny guys with a penchant for Converse trainers very, very soon.
KT Tunstall
Another Place To Fall
Relentless
hecklerspray enjoyed KT Tunstall’s (CDs) performance at last month’s Brit
Awards – leggy, two-tone dancers strutting across the stage in
lesbo-erotic fashion whilst Tunstall gamely strummed (and drummed)
along to Suddenly I See – but did she really own the stage the way
Prince, or Kanye West, or even Kelly Clarkson did? Another Place To
Fall, the fifth single from her hugely successful Eye To The Telescope
album, is as agreeable, but ultimately as unsatisfying, as that
performance. The jangly guitars? Pleasant. And the chorus? Well, it’s
soaring enough in a daytime radio kinda way. But the lyrics are
horrifically hackneyed and the production is utterly listless. She may
have nabbed one of those Brit Awards, but since when did that signal
anything other than crushing mediocrity?
Black Eyed Peas
Pump It
Polydor
STOP PRESS! BLACK EYED PEAS IN NON-HAIRCURLING SINGLE SHOCKER!
Yes really! In fact, the fourth single from the Peas’ (CDs) Monkey Business
album is its strongest yet. Pump It samples Misirlou, Dick Dale‘s surf
guitar-propelled theme to Pulp Fiction, and adds hand-claps and some
inspired call-and-response vocals to create a taut and danceable
hip-hop floor-filler. Even Fergie fails to grate here, probably because
she sounds remarkably similar to Gwen Stefani in urban fabulous mode.
As usual the lyrics don’t bare scrutiny (“Pump it louder! Come on don’t
stop and keep it goin’! Do it! Let’s get it on! Move it!” indeed), but
Pump It is the most infectious the Black Eyed Peas have been since,
ooh, at least 2003.
Massive Attack
Live With Me
Virgin
After 2003’s 100th Window proved a commercial and critical
disappointment, it was inevitable that Massive Attack (CDs) would release a
greatest hits compilation. The only surprise is that it’s taken three
years to arrive. Live With Me is a new song from Collected – that
long-awaited compilation – and it’s an understated return to form from
the Bristol collective. Orchestral washes, a clattering, downtempo beat
and some supremely soulful vocals from Terry Callier interweave to
create a brooding, atmospheric single. It’s not as transcendent as the
Bristol band’s most potent moments – being more of a minor skirmish than
a Massive Attack – but there’s no denying its underlying quality.
[reviews by Nick Levine]
tom k says
girls aloud are bollocks whats this guy on??!!
Cheryl says
Walk Away is Kelly Clarkson’s 5th Single off Breakaway. The other 4 were Breakaway, Since U Been Gone, Behind These Hazel Eyes and Because Of You Which all had Tremendious Success!!
Adam says
FYI Breakaway was not a single in the UK.