Keane
Is It Any Wonder?
Island
Keane’s debut album shifted five million ‘units’ worldwide; they won two Brit Awards and opened for U2. Hurrah! Champagne all round? Err, not quite. Lots of people in skinny jeans with penchants for asymmetric haircuts called them “bland”, “weedy” and- gasp!- “bedwetters”. They weren’t entirely wrong. But Is It Any Wonder, the lead single from the band’s upcoming Under The Iron Sea album, is a big fat slap round the chops for all the haters. It features electric guitar! It sounds a bit like A-Ha! The chorus is bigger than Lea from Big Brother’s chest pillows! That’s right, Keane’s balls have dropped and it damn well suits them.
Hey Mister! You likey singles reviews? Singles reviews from LeAnn Rimes, Prince, Corinne Bailey Rae, Ronan Keating featuring Kate Rusby and Pink after the jump! Best price!
LeAnn Rimes
And It Feels Like
Curb
In 2004 The Best Of LeAnn Rimes made number two on the UK album charts and shifted 400,000 copies. Not bad for a woman of 21 whose catalogue of genuine, sing-em-when-you’re-pissed hits comprises How Do I Live, Can’t Fight The Moonlight and That One With Ronan Keating. Rimes’ dilemma has always been how to balance her early country success with her desire to crossover to pop superstardom à la Shania Twain, and it’s consistently led her to soft rock hell. And It Feels Like is no exception: dated production, a signposted, flaccid member of a chorus and the sort of ‘epic’ vocal performance that’ll have Celine Dion calling Caesars Palace to demand “New lights! New dancers! New costumes!” In 2006, that’s not something to be proud of.
Prince
Fury
MCA
Two decent Prince singles in a row? Huh? Is it, like, 1987 or something? Well, backcomb our hair and call us Alexis! Fury is vintage Prince: a relentless soul groove, a cocksure, lustful vocal and the sort of guitar solo that could surely frazzle Brian May’s perm. Of course it’s nothing the suspiciously ageless miniature marvel hasn’t done before, but isn’t that a good thing? After the years of aimless studio jams, it’s a relief that he’s trying to evoke his classic sound again. Whisper it, but Fury might just give the purple dynamo his first top 40 hit – other than the obligatory new millennial reissue of 1999 – in nine years.
Corinne Bailey Rae
Trouble Sleeping
EMI
Trouble Sleeping? Not after hearing this single, you won’t. Ho ho ho! But seriously, as pleasant as Corinne Bailey Rae undoubtedly is, is she really necessary? Isn’t the thirtysomething dinner party/ bubble bath/ summer picnic by a babbling brook market already covered by Jack Johnson, Katie Melua, Jem et al? Trouble Sleeping, the third single from her number one debut album, is laid-back, jazz-tinged and oh-so tasteful. It’s Sade for the noughties, in all honesty. And – with her album already double platinum, a Mercury Prize nomination in the bag and no sign of a gathering backlash – Bailey Rae really is a smooth operator.
Ronan Keating featuring Kate Rusby
All Over Again
Polydor
Like Twiggy and syphilis, Ronan Keating doesn’t really belong in 2006. But, hey, the former’s got an M&S ad and the latter’s apparently on the rise again, so we’ll try to be open-minded*. All Over Again is the ex-Boyzone warbler’s first new single since his Ten Years Of Hits compilation 18 months ago, and it’s business as usual for the least charismatic man in pop. It’s a plodding MOR love song made almost noteworthy by some resolutely northern vocals from renowned folkie Kate Rusby. Her contribution to such a ‘mainstream’ single might just wind up a few beardy men plucking banjos in remote Somerset pubs, which saves this single from utter pointlessness. Just about.
*we didn’t
Pink
Who Knew
RCA
The second single from Pink’s I’m Not Dead album is a rock ballad co-written by Max Martin, the man behind much of Kelly Clarkson’s Breakaway unit-shifter. Well, Pink’s in need of a big radio hit, so who can blame her for hiring the hitmaker du jour among American female pop stars? Who Knew manages to avoid sounding entirely generic for two reasons: Pink’s aching, impassioned vocals and ear-snagging lyrics like “If someone said three years from now you'd be long gone; I'd stand up and punch them out”. Whoa! We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: she’s got balls, that Pink chick.
[reviews by Nick Levine]