Sheryl Crow featuring Sting
Always On Your Side
A&M
Remember when Sheryl Crow wrote Stonesy rockers brimming with pop culture references like There Goes The Neighbourhood and If It Makes You Happy? Remember when the mere mention of Sting’s name didn’t bring you out in a cold sweat? Nah, we’re all too young for that. Always On Your Side – released to plug a reissue of Crow’s flop Wildflower album, last chance saloon-spotters – is a schmaltzy piano ballad rendered teeth-grinding by a horribly dated drum loop and some truly heinous lyrics. (Our pick: “You were always waiting to be picked to play the game, but when your name was called, you found a place to hide”). It’s like that decade-old tin of treacle you found in Auntie Ethel’s attic after she’d died: saccharine, gloopy and utterly stale.
Thank the Lord above that dreary old Sheryl Crow and her rubbish music isn't the only singer with a new single out this week. More singles reviews from Christina Milian, Lil' Kim, Angels & Airwaves, Morning Runner and The Like after the jump…
Christina Milian
Say I
Def Soul
In spite of her role in flop Travolta/Thurman vehicle Be Cool – not to mention her, ahem, ‘vampish’ performance in the Dip It Low video – household name status still eludes Christina Milian. That’s a shame, because she’s released a handful of catchy R&B floorfillers and co-wrote J.Lo’s best song (the exuberant, DJ-baiting Play). Say I, the lead single from her upcoming So Amazin’ album, is utterly formulaic urban dance circa 2006. Sample from obscure seventies soul single? Check. Slightly breathless vocal from shiny young starlet? Mais bien sur, mon ami. Cameo from rent-a-rapper? Why, sure as Cristal has bubbles! None of this, however, stops it from being catchy as crabs. Let’s just hope Milian’s got a decent album lined up this time; after all, there’s only so much flesh a girl can bare to keep her career alive.
Lil’ Kim
Whoa
Atlantic
She’s 4’11”. She’s got breasts the size of small African nations. And she’s currently serving 366 days in prison for conspiracy and perjury. Whoa indeed! It’s nice to know that being behind bars doesn’t preclude her from releasing a single though, isn’t it? Just don’t expect an appearance on Popworld any time soon. Anyway, enough with the shallow but titillating gossip – what’s the single like? Well, it’s perfectly competent pop-rap, raised a few notches by a powerful vocal performance from the pintsized jailbird. But despite some bizarre sonic details- drum sounds pilfered from eighties Pet Shop Boys, an utterly jarring reggae-tinged middle eight that recalls TLC’s Waterfalls – Lil’ Kim the rap artiste just isn’t as interesting as Lil’ Kim the person.
Angels & Airwaves
The Adventure
MCA
Sometimes we can’t concentrate at work. Sometimes we find ourselves unable to follow the conversation, even when someone’s sharing an anecdote that contains the immortal line “Narinder from Big Brother was there”. Sometimes we lie awake at night, unable to sleep, counting the recipients of Dolly’s gene pool ‘til 3am. So what’s the source of this inability to concentrate, this worry and woe, we hear you ask? Why, it’s the lack of Blink 182 solo projects in our lives, of course! But now, finally, we can breathe easy. Angels & Airwaves – featuring the vocal talents of Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge – are in our lives. Debut single The Adventure is pretty much what you’d expect: epic, widescreen emo let down by that teeth-grinding American pop-punk vocal style. But at least our wait is over!
Morning Runner
The Great Escape
Relentless
Reading’s Morning Runner scored a top twenty hit with their Burning Bridges single in March, but the road to Indie Nirvana – a magical place high above the skies of Camden, currently inhabited by Kaiser Chiefs, Arctic Monkeys et al – is long and crowded right now. It takes more than an asymmetric haircut and a pair of skinny jeans to reach 'Brit awards and platinum discs and Buzzcocks guestspots' status, you know. The Great Escape darts from pretty, jangly verses to more strident, powerful choruses and its “oooooooh” backing vocals are really quite haunting. It’s not a bad single, but the lasting impression is “cor, doesn’t he sound like David Gray?” Ricky Wilson won’t be watching his back just yet.
The Like
What I Say And What I Mean
Riffs! Fit girls! With guitars! Not in a Courtney Love way! Girly vocals! So LA it hurts! Yeah, fit girls! With industry connections! That one’s dad, you know who he is, he drummed with Elvis Costello! And that one, yeah her on bass, her dad was Paul McCartney’s producer! Wow! So much better than the first single! Big shouty chorus! Comes on like a vodka rush! Album out now! Give! Us! A! Paper! Bag! Or! We’ll! Die! NOW!
Will the ‘spray recover from its girlband-induced panic attack? You’ll have to wait ‘til next week to find out…
[reviews by Nick Levine]