The Modern – Jane Falls Down
The Modern are one of the British bands most deserving of mainstream success, yet so far they’ve had very little acknowledgement, despite being quite obviously acetastic. Suburban Culture, their last single, was a brilliant track but I think this is even better. Think New Order meets Bodies Without Organs, or for those of you who know them, the Swedish electro-pop act, Universal Poplab. The female singer is more prominent on this track and this works very well. The video is as stylish as their sound, and shows the band to be a rather good-looking bunch as well! If the chart was decided by me, this lot would be huge by now.
96% Poptastic!
Westlife – You Raise Me Up
In a moment of unprecedented desperation, even for the X Factor, the original version of this song was played as the last few contestants were rejected by Louis Walsh (AKA my worst enemy ever, even worse than Simon Le Bon) on this week’s show. What on Earth the song has to do with rejection (surely the opposite?) I have no idea, but this has to be an example of Westlife’s cynical promotion at it’s most worrying. As for their own version of the song…don’t even go there!
5% Poptastic!
Lorenz – Turn The Beat Around
This has to be the gayest song of the year so far – a cover of Turn The Beat Around by Gloria Estefan (the same song sampled on Dannii Minogue’s new single – Gloria must be in fashion what with this and the Mylo “mash-up”), by a shiny, muscly, orange-skinned young(ish) man, accompanied with a video which might have been semi-fashionable in 1996. The song is not entirely terrible, just incredibly dated.
55% Poptastic!
Kubb – Wicked Soul
The first time I heard of Kubb I had no idea I would be watching them play live! They were supporting the bundle of aceness known as Gavin Degraw, and they must have enjoyed it because they supported him again the next time he played in London. This song is more exciting than their nice-but-dim previous single, Remain, but it’s still lacking in real sparkle. However, they were really good live and sparkle doesn’t seem to be a necessity in the charts these days, so they’ll probably do well.
67% Poptastic!
Kaiser Chiefs – Modern Way
I saw a photo of Ricky Kaiser the other day where he actually looked rather handsome! Considering the last time I’d seen him he’d been slightly podgy, sweaty and generally a less than pretty sight, there is obviously something dodgy going on here. Has Ricky been replaced with a better-looking imposter? Now I guess I’d better say something about the song – well, I was a bit surprised at the choice of single but I do like it more than Everyday I Love You Less And Less, which is one of my least fave Kaiser songs. The video is interesting but they have made a huge mistake in including the wrong daytime TV presenters – obviously Richard and Judy are far superior! (although Fern and Philip are very sweet, just far too normal to be entertaining)
78% Poptastic!
Tina Cousins – Wonderful Life
As pleased as I am that Tina is releasing a new single and particularly this, the Australian release version of which is absolutely fantastic, but I am really disappointed in the version being released here. It seems to have been remixed and in the process lost it’s joyous catchy punch. However, the blow was softened by my mother rushing in and saying, “Oooh, I love this song! I’ve even got the album!” (and for my mum to have an album is quite an event in itself as she has very few) and this resulted in me playing her the proper Tina version which she is now in love with too. After her bizarre obsessions with Blue Lagoon’s Now That We Found Love and Shirley Klamp’s Do The Know It’s Xmas, she is developing quite excellent taste in cheesy pop covers of ’80s songs. So my mum turns out to be a cool parent after all!
UK version: 91% Poptastic!
Oz version: 98% Poptastic!
Daniel Powter – Freeloop
The hats are getting bigger – the scaly skin must have spread to his forehead! Poor bloke. He’s been so busy finding a cure for his rather embarrassing ailment, he hasn’t even had time to come up with an original sounding song and has had to rush off this mediocrity instead.
60% Poptastic!