Tuesday, September 27, 2005
It's All tATu Much
Given the fact that for the last few weeks the single release schedules have been about as inspiring as a conference speech given by Tony Blair (satire) it's come as quite a surprise to discover that this week the What's New racks hold as much brilliance as a mirrored box containing the sun. As having more than one good single released in a fortnight is generally cause for celebration these days, we're not going to let this momentous event pass us by and will be highlighting one example of aceness every day this week.
Unless we're too busy/lazy that is.
Anyway, first up - excluding Jo O'Meara's What Hurt The Most, that is, as while that might be confusing a few birds, it's not quite hitting the same heights and causing the disruption to airplane flight plans that other releases are - is tATu with All About Us.
The last time tATu vaguely entered the British consciousness, was in 2003 when they represented Russia in Eurovision and failed, despite the fears of some of the more illiberal countries involved, to do anything controversial whatsoever, although some would say that the phoned-in nature of their performance was controversial in itself, but it still secured them the honour of the third place position. Since then things have changed a lot in the world of the schoolgirl lesbians, most notably the fact that not only are they no longer schoolgirl lesbians, but they also deny having ever even pretended to be schoolgirl lesbians, despite the fact that their most famous video showed them being, if not schoolgirl lesbians, then certainly on slightly more friendly terms than characters from the Mallory Towers series of novels would have been familiar with.
But who cares? Frankly, unless you're a person of somewhat dubious character, Richard Madely, or both, the sapphic teen undertones weren't the most interesting thing about the girls, instead it was the fact that with disarming ease they managed to single handedly reinvigorate the somewhat stagnant pop music scene and remind the public at large that music from outside the UK and US shouldn't just immediately be dismissed as irrelevant or laughable. Something worth bearing in mind when we're a country that'll happily have the Crazy Frog at number one while simultaneously having the audacity to claim that we do actually have a clue about music.
All About Us is the big comeback single and it's about a million times better than McFly's similarly titled Comic Relief single, though given that even June Sarpong's voice sounds a million times better than the McFly track this isn't much of a compliment. But this is no attempt at damning with faint praise, this track is an all guns blazing, widescreen attack on the charts, and it plans on taking no prisoners in its charge towards the number one slot, Pussycat Dolls be damned. It's not as good as All The Things She Said, but then, few things are - indeed, the only ones that spring immediately to mind are Nicola Roberts and Cherry Bakewells - and taken on it's own terms it's a behemoth of staggering proportions, much like a drunken elephant and nearly as likely to damage your car should it come stumbling down your street.
Oh, and Julia is still very pretty, even if her role does now seem to be played by whoever played the role of Kelly Osbourne on the front of the One Word cover.
music tatu
Unless we're too busy/lazy that is.
Anyway, first up - excluding Jo O'Meara's What Hurt The Most, that is, as while that might be confusing a few birds, it's not quite hitting the same heights and causing the disruption to airplane flight plans that other releases are - is tATu with All About Us.
The last time tATu vaguely entered the British consciousness, was in 2003 when they represented Russia in Eurovision and failed, despite the fears of some of the more illiberal countries involved, to do anything controversial whatsoever, although some would say that the phoned-in nature of their performance was controversial in itself, but it still secured them the honour of the third place position. Since then things have changed a lot in the world of the schoolgirl lesbians, most notably the fact that not only are they no longer schoolgirl lesbians, but they also deny having ever even pretended to be schoolgirl lesbians, despite the fact that their most famous video showed them being, if not schoolgirl lesbians, then certainly on slightly more friendly terms than characters from the Mallory Towers series of novels would have been familiar with.
But who cares? Frankly, unless you're a person of somewhat dubious character, Richard Madely, or both, the sapphic teen undertones weren't the most interesting thing about the girls, instead it was the fact that with disarming ease they managed to single handedly reinvigorate the somewhat stagnant pop music scene and remind the public at large that music from outside the UK and US shouldn't just immediately be dismissed as irrelevant or laughable. Something worth bearing in mind when we're a country that'll happily have the Crazy Frog at number one while simultaneously having the audacity to claim that we do actually have a clue about music.
All About Us is the big comeback single and it's about a million times better than McFly's similarly titled Comic Relief single, though given that even June Sarpong's voice sounds a million times better than the McFly track this isn't much of a compliment. But this is no attempt at damning with faint praise, this track is an all guns blazing, widescreen attack on the charts, and it plans on taking no prisoners in its charge towards the number one slot, Pussycat Dolls be damned. It's not as good as All The Things She Said, but then, few things are - indeed, the only ones that spring immediately to mind are Nicola Roberts and Cherry Bakewells - and taken on it's own terms it's a behemoth of staggering proportions, much like a drunken elephant and nearly as likely to damage your car should it come stumbling down your street.
Oh, and Julia is still very pretty, even if her role does now seem to be played by whoever played the role of Kelly Osbourne on the front of the One Word cover.
music tatu
