HERE COMES EVERYONE POST: Singles of the Week (Best and Worst)

Good Stuff released 21st June
Mark Ronson & The Business INTL – “Bang Bang Bang”
This track is definitely a grower. When I first heard the song about a month ago I was a bit impartial to it, but now I fucking love “Bang Bang Bang”! Musically its cute and fun, but it has a sober, cool edge to it that makes its very appealing and not too gimmicky. It has good quality funky guest stars in Q-tip and MNDR, who submit idiosyncratic vocals that make the track interesting because of its vocal styles, not just because of the person producing them, (as in much of Ronson’s other work). The melody line and synth hook are also good. But what I think really makes this track is the video. The combination of vintage French/Japanese cultural references is soo cool (everything down to the Lacoste trainers is perfect), as is the 80s style Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy sound effects and graphics. This might be my favourite thing Mark Ronson has ever done. Do check out the video:





Bad Stuff released 21st June
Scissor Sisters – “Fire with Fire”
Previous work by the Scissor Sisters has often been interesting, camp, humorous, fun, cheeky, perhaps (if you’re a homophobe) even controversial. Unfortunately these are all qualities this new song does not have. It’s been four years since Scissor Sisters released anything and then they come back with this limp, half arsed offering. The music, the video, the lyrical content, it all smacks of dissatisfied queens whose melodramatic view of their situation has turned them into gay martyrs. Its sombre, sober, dull attitude is certainly to be missed.





Cypress Hill – “Armada Latina”
Ah, remember when Cypress Hill were good? Remember Black Sunday and when they used to play rapcore? Well this will be beyond a disappointment to you. Yes, Cypress Hill have Latin roots, but must they embrace them so much that they become a sad Latino parody? Change the vocal style and this could be a track from Enrique Iglesas. They seem to have completely lost their edge, fire and interest.

HERE COMES EVERYONE POST: Singles of the Week (Best and Worst)

Devo – “Fresh”
This song should be fairly recognisable; I’m sure its on an advert from E4 or something, but my god how I love it! “Fresh” is such a feat, because whilst it still sounds essentially like Devo, with vocal styling’s that could only have evolved in the 1970s, the music, the production, the general way they pull off this song, is purely rooted within the teenies. This track sounds so modern it could have been performed by a bunch of cool 22 year olds with a penchant for hip indie pop. The hook is great; repetitive, but not in a bad way, and the song generally has a really upbeat, vibrant feel to it. This is no small undertaking – this song sounds experienced without sounding old, tired and passé. Hot stuff!



Kaki King – “Close to Me”
The combination of fantastically talented acoustic guitarist Kaki King and a truly beautiful and subtle Cure song couldn’t really go wrong, could it? Recently featured on a lot a Nivea adverts, this track originally emerged from a charity album called Perfect for Cats, which was filled purely with Cure covers. King’s cover was one of the best on the album, and gives the track a new dimension of feminine delicacy, whilst highlighting the track’s dynamic instrumentation. She makes the track her own whilst respecting and nurturing the original.



Bad Stuff released 14th June
Fatboy Slim versus Herve – “Machines can do the Work”
Ah, this is not a good track. Fatboy Slim hasn’t release any new material in forever, and then he comes back with this, for shame. I quite like the premise of the sample, but the actual music of the track is just too aggressive and heavy, a bit too techno for my liking. It doesn’t really have enough of a hook either, and just generally lacks any commerciality, and there really isn’t anything worse than non-commercial, hard-core dance music. Its just completely inaccessible for anyone that isn’t on Speed. In all honesty it sounds a bit like Norman Cook is just fucking about with this track. He really must try harder.

HERE COMES EVERYONE POST: Singles of the Week (Best and Worst)

So the wonderful Blog-zine that is Here Comes Everyone have asked me to make a regular feature of my best and worst singles of the week. However, over the past few weeks I have become very tired of trying to find some source of interest in the charts for this feature - seriously, the top 40 can be a bloody wasteland of dull urban pop and questionable impulse downloads. It has actually become quite depressing to find something "good" in the charts, so here, with HCE, I have chosen to take a different tack with these weekly capsule reviews. At work I deal with the coming week’s key singles releases – stuff that that record companies are pushing to be bought (or expecting to be bought) in droves. So I’ll preview the best and worst of the new releases for the following week so you know what to check out, and what to avoid. It's like a public service really.

Good Stuff released June 7th
Field Music – “Lets Write a Book”
By far the best track of the week, this is a cracking new single by the Sunderland band, from their new album Measure. The song is direct and punchy, with harsh and jagged yet diverse timbres. The repetitive bass-driven main hook is not unlike that of Kraftwerk, and the track also exhibits some interesting cameos from electric guitars and eerie skeleton like marimbas. Rhythmically it plods along in a slow yet blunt fashion, which contrasts interesting with the thin falsetto vocals. The video too is an interesting collage that seems to be a visual homage to Terry Gilliam. A cracking song, I urge you to check out the link below…



Pony Pony Run Run – “Walking on a Line”
Cool song from a cool French band. I love the way they enunciate when they sing, (and the fact that they sing in English!), the cute retro synth timbres, and the main synth hook. But what I especially love is this fantastic video below – not to be missed.



Bad Stuff released 7th June
Reece – “Party ‘til Lights Out”
Ah, glorification of a culture that that truly is the worst of everything that England has to offer. What’s there not to love?! If you couldn’t tell already, I was being sarcastic. Gormless, inbred looking chav boy makes aspiration (read depressing) rhymes for thick cheap tarts and hard-up, minging boys who seem to still think skinheads and earrings are a good look. This track is awful musically as well, seeming to take influence from the worst pop cum techno dregs of turn of the century nothingness. If you genuinely like this then you are not my friend.



Chico – “It’s England Time”
Well duh. This was obviously going to be a complete disaster. I doubt it’ll do well, as it is just embarrassing, but there are enough Z list celebrities to impress idiots enough to buy it. For shame.