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Post by vya on Sept 23, 2021 19:15:45 GMT 1
09 All Saints - Never Ever 01 Oasis - All Around The World 08 Usher - You make Me Wanna 07 Aqua - Doctor Jones 07 Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On 06 Cornershop - Brimful Of Asha (remix) 10 Madonna - Frozen 05 Run DMC vs Jason Nevins - It's Like That 09 Tamperer featuring Maya - Feel It 01 Boyzone - All That I Need 05 All Saints - Under The Bridge 08 Aqua - Turn Back Time 05 B*Witched - C'est La Vie 06 Baddiel & Skinner and The Lightning Seeds - 3 Lions '98 08 Billie - Because We Want To 01 Another Level - Freak Me 07 Jamiroquai - Deeper Underground 08 Spice Girls - Viva Forever 02 Boyzone - No Matter What 08 Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next 03 All Saints - Bootie Call 06 Robbie Williams - Millennium 04 Melanie B featuring Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott - I Want You Back 06 B*Witched - Rollercoaster 06 Billie - Girlfriend 01 Spacedust - Gym And Tonic 08 Cher - Believe 07 B*Witched - To You I Belong 07 Spice Girls - Goodbye
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Post by vya on Sept 23, 2021 17:53:11 GMT 1
07 Specials - Do Nothing 05 Toyah - It's A Mystery 07 Sugar Minott - Good Thing Going (We've Got A Good Thing Going) 08 Madness - Grey Day 09 Kim Wilde - Chequered Love 10 Imagination - Body Talk 10 Odyssey - Going Back To My Roots 09 Jam - Funeral Pyre 00 Red Sovine - Teddy Bear 03 Tight Fit - Back To The Sixties 07 Electric Light Orchestra - Hold On Tight 09 Cliff Richard - Wired For Sound 06 Alvin Stardust - Pretend 07 Toyah - Thunder In The Mountains 09 Squeeze - Labelled With Love 09 Jam - Absolute Beginners 08 Haircut 100 - Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) 07 Diana Ross - Why Do Fools Fall In Love 10 Soft Cell - Bed Sitter
Probably the most exciting and most innovative year for chart pop music in the past 40+ years, but the experiments didn't quite always, immediately, pay off.
May be quasi-blasphemous to say this, but I think I prefer Snuff's version of "Do Nothing", but the dress sense of the, excellent, Specials is sublime. (Also, Imagination have never sounded more like Shakatak than on the astounding "Body Talk", and Haircut 100 have never sounded more like Modern Romance since the track here, either)
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Post by vya on Sept 23, 2021 16:30:18 GMT 1
15 Aug Davies
Level 42 - Guaranteed The instantly recognizable sound of late 80s version Level 42. As pleasant but as (musically) incidental as, say, "Children Say" was. Pleasingly uncool.
Color Me Badd - All 4 Love Tinny and tedious, and their visual aesthetics are evidently about as appealing as their aural ones Charts: some great new entries this week: Manics, Flowered Up, Martika, REM
Sophie Lawrence - Love's Unkind Maybe a coincidental or intentional legacy of the Donna Summer-SAW contretemps was that the hit factory decided to desecrate one of her numbers. To be fair this is more a pointless and unappealling cover than a descretation, but it adds nothing to the original, has an inferior singer (no disrespect when the original is DS) and is not in a wildly different style. So why bother?
Bomb The Bass - Winter In July This is good but feels a bit incomplete. A bit more orchestration (a la "Unfinished Sympathy") might have been the making of it
PM Dawn - Set Adrift On Memory Bliss Surprisingly attractive reinterpretation of "True", skilled mellow rap (oh watch the Tribe Called Quest allusion in the lyrics). Generally I remain mystified by the appeal of PM Dawn, but this track simply works.
Voice Of The Beehive - Monsters And Angels Still not convinced this isn't the best pop single of the year. Gorgeous, insightful.
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The French Prince - Summmertime This is also how you do mellow rap, with a bit of soul added. So much so it even makes up for how annoying their other singles are.
Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy Really, you're not. There are few good bass riffs here, just a few mind.
Breakers: Midge Ure - Cold Cold Heart: could happily listen to this once in a while, melancholic and electronic, very Ultravox indeed Karyn White - Romantic: lush but not as immediate as some of her previous stuff REM - Near Wild Heaven: beautiful and emotive, one of their best
Brian Adams >>>FFWD>>>> (Six weeks at no 1. Enough already)
Michael Bolton - Time Love and Tenderness Machine produced and soulless. Singer trying too hard, musicians not hard enough.
Actually not a terrible edition.
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Post by vya on Sept 19, 2021 19:08:34 GMT 1
8.8 Campbell
De La Soul - A Roller Skating Jam Named `Saturdays' The "parts are good" and "parts are original" dilemma exemplified. Not their worst or most irritating moment.
Extreme - More Than Words Effective. What is going up the charts mostly does not spark joy.
Beverley Craven - Holding On If what we really need is a female Peter Cetera, we've found one. Not horrible, some attractive displays of passion occasionally breaking out even. (Peter Cetera is under-rated, this is not an arch diss.)
Metallica - Enter Sandman Have to credit them making no 5 without really watering down their sound that much. Though actually their balladry can be stronger than this kind of mid-paced semi-rocker. There is a little bit of polish here. Will surely do better.
Shamen - Move Any Mountain They still sound like the future, even though the track is hardly brand new now. Maybe one of the pristine vinyl versions minus over-enthuisasm here is more space age though.
Amy Grant - Every Heartbeat I rather like her wholesome pop, it's simple, good-hearted and unpretentious, and you can sing along. This is a step up from "Baby Baby", too.
Blur - Bang Holding up a poster of a chicken head, to be wacky, or say look at how wacky we are, I suppose. That apart, this is not too art school, thankfully. Not sure it'd have made a Stone Roses B-side (at least when they were doing quality B-sides), but it passes the time tolerably enough and doesn't overstay its welcome.
Young Disciples - Apparently Nothin' Not sure whether the lyrics are admirably idealistic or (a la Imagine) credulously naive. The track overall has a great groove and atmosphere, and Shara Nelson can clearly sing, even if the song doesn't really go anywhere very much, spoken breakdown part aside. Suggests promise for the future of the act.
Breakers: Technotronic ft Reggie - Work: same as usual, unfortunately (though we hear very little of it) Michael Bolton - Time, Love and Tenderness: same as usual, most unfortunately (though we hear too much of it) Sophie Lawrence - Love's Unkind: ghastly Mandy Smith-style cover version that is unnecessary
Brian Adams - etc etc (fast forward)
Vanilla Ice - Satisfaction Talk about saving the worst for last. Hilarious if you hear it once, no need to hear it twice. Stutter Rap-tastic.
A pretty painful edition. Time to pension Campbell off too. He's not as funny as he thinks he is.
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Post by vya on Sept 8, 2021 23:54:13 GMT 1
August First Mayo, trying too hard to be as unfunny and knowing as Campbell
Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy Black Lace meets Star Turn on 45 Pints. Just what the world doesn't need. The Blackpool Tower Wurlitzer organ bits are a nice touch. Otherwise....no.
DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Prince - Summertime That rare thing, a DJJJ&FP track that is enjoyable and even melodious. The soulful backing vocals are the thing Nice enough. Charts vaguely promising, in that more that is good is going up than going down, and more that is bad is going down than going up
Voice of the Beehive - Monsters and Angels Superb in all regards. Classy sensitive, intelligent (channeling Solzenitsyn a bit) power pop. What a group. Has a strong case (with some others) for being their absolute finest moment. Delightful. Sing-along, too. "Morrissey" scrawled on the guitar, lol.
Deacon Blue - Twist And Shout A welcome further step away from the sometimes overblown rock of Album 2 back towards what made Album 1 so appealling. Fun as well as enthuisastic. Bouncy and playful. (An influence on "The Patience of Angels", I wonder)
Color Me Badd - All 4 Love Not repulsive. The timpani (probably synthesised) is welcome. But this isn't up to much, might even suggest they weren't expecting to have to follow up such a big hit as they had.
Morrissey - Pregnant For The Last Time Battering that tambourine. Taut beats. Rockabilly and quiff. Arch lyrics and sneers that almost become snarls, kind of classic "nice or nasty?" Moz.
Bomb The Bass ft Loretta - Winter In July Spacious, futuristic, pop future, similar-ish vibe to Massive Attack more or less (following up the hints of a more soulful BtB hinted at in their earlier Aretha cover). Effective and affecting. I'd quite forgotten it was this good.
Breakers: Beverley Craven - Holding On: superior radio balladry from someone who can sing. Not really my thing but. Marillion - No One Can: more proof that getting rid of Fish is the best thing they ever did. Sensitive, beautiful, the right sort of polished. De La Soul - A Roller Skating Jam Named "Saturdays" - this act are still overrated, overhyped etc Young Disciples - Apparently Nothin': bright young British sound, this is decent
Bryan Adams - This is a battle of attrition and even on repeated listening it's still no "Summer of 69". Some of the instrumental sections have something about them.
Seal - The Beginning The voice goes a long way, the track is less stellar than a couple of his priors, but OK
Really a strong and agreeable edition
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Post by vya on Aug 28, 2021 0:06:57 GMT 1
25.07 Goodier (who sorry to say does seem like an overexcitable sixth former/youth worker)
Shamen - "Move Any Mountain" Once known as "Progen", they've clearly decided not to take the New Order approach to song titles anymore now that they have a public profile. Basically this is how to mix indie and rock, properly. That keyboard riff. The percussion. Closer to the KLF in spirit and mode than all that bandwagon-jumping Madchester sh*te (or Jesus Jones or the Farm). Live vocals appreciated. Fantastic.
C&C Music Factory ft Freedom Williams- "Things That Make You Go Hmm..." A minor entertainment. Charts: what's going up seems largely underwhelming
Dannii Minogue - "Jump To The Beat" Kylie's 3rd hit single was a crap cover, too. This one is worse, and more pointless, as it adds nothing, nothing whatsoever, to the earlier version. (Oh a pointless rap that it could have done without, well without). A cheap respray. Nice tune, still.
Extreme - "More Than Words" A sensitive, (still) fresh and tuneful rock ballad, you'd not guess it was the same act as that responsible for their last fratboy single. Class.
OMD - "Pandora's Box" OK, no more, no less. It's no "The Romance of the Telescope".
Cher - "Love And Understanding" Radio wallpaper for coastal Americans. Not repulsive. Not at all.
Frankie Knuckles - "The Whistle Song" The man is obviously a legend, but he has quite clearly been involved (whether as producer or remixer) with tracks so vastly more enduring than this one. I can't let go! Tears... Here, there is at least a hypnotic rhythm and ambient space, ok it will do for the chillout room. But damn it is great to see the man on TOTP.
Breakers: Deacon Blue - "Twist And Shout": cute and incidental, almost fairy-tale like, not sure it's what they do best Seal- "The Beginning": wish he'd get back with Adamski so his superlative vocals have the musical backdrop they deserve Bomb The Bass - "Winter In July": melancholic, deep, vaguely Arabic touches, certainly original
Bryan Adams - etc more of the same
Morrissey - "Pregnant For The Last Time" Rawer than before, musically this is Not The Smiths. It's OK.
Have been better editions, have been worse
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Post by vya on Aug 27, 2021 23:33:31 GMT 1
18 July 1991, Brambles
Cathy Dennis - "Just Another Dream" "Knocking them dead on both sides of the Atlantic", apparently. Leather-clad kinky spy chic, 1920s Berlin, 1930s Riga dancers. While this is a step up from "Touch Me", this is one of those songs that builds up but ultimately lacks a chorus (repeating the title over and over without a perceptible melody barely count). Verses are more promising, decent even, nice slip into French there too. Promising, not without appeal, but doesn't rise much higher than OK.
Heavy D & The Boyz - "Now That We Found Love" + Charts: yay Altern 8, double yay Voice of the Beehive, yay The Shades of Rhythm, yay Londonbeat, any of these would be way preferable to this, at least a lot of the other rubbish is going down the charts now. Hm, this is no 4 in the charts, but the ones above it aren't better.
Little Angels - "I Ain't Gonna Cry" Completely forgotten to the passage of time. Maybe unfairly. A promising start, with its spacious and angsty bluesy style, union jack guitars, but badly let down by the more conventionally rocky chorus. Something as authentically unpretentiously English about this as real ale with a wacky (and marginally misogynistic) name. Problem is it's not ugly, but even with its freshness, it is ultimately a bit mediocre and incomplete.
MC Hammer - "(Hammer Hammer) They Put Me In The Mix" Utterly atrocious. I mean, better than Vanilla Ice's latest.
Kim Appleby - "Mama" Finally, some quality. Understated, emotional, heart-warming, tuneful, sing-along. Yes.
Natalie Cole & Nat "King" Cole - "Unforgettable" I'm still troubled at the ethics (and taste) of the posthumous duet. Musically and vocally, this is fine, but I preferred Ms Cole when she was giving it "Jump Start" on Soul Train. She can pull this off though, too, but the question is whether she should. Jury's out.
Breakers: Altern-8 - "Infiltrate-202": Raw and deep house largely based around a fine selection of samples, does it for me Shades of Rhythm - "The Sound of Eden": Raw and deep house going a bit poppy, a bit post-Balearic (I swear their album had sleeve notes slagging off a local councillor in Peterborough on though, like the Soke really is not Ibiza btw). Promising if not earthshattering.
Londonbeat - "A Better Love" Sounds like a combination of every other Londonbeat song mixed into one. Not a bad thing given their general calibre. Man they can sing. They can play. They can write songs. Probably would have been a big hit a decade or so earlier, when popular taste was better. Nice. Chorus definitely qualifies as singalong.
Jesus Jones - "Right Here Right Now" Inspired by their trip to Romania they have turned semi-acoustic (if overproduced) and vaguely political/social commentary. At least unlike Billy Bragg they are on the right side (well, if they believe anything at all, and if they don't, that's still preferable to Bragg). In its way it seems telling that (as far as I know) this never became, in contrast to tracks by the Scorpions & DJ Bobo (several of the latter) an Anthem of the Fall of Communism actually in Central/Eastern Europe itself. Corporate feelgood complacent stuff, they'd be singing hymns to the current President if they were Yanks.
Bryan Adams - etc The man has done so much better than this musically. And in films his appearance, as himself, in a cameo role in the Russian film "Dom Durakov" ("House of Fools", set in a lunatic asylum just outside Chechnya during the war, with a delusional inmate who has dreamed for years that Bryan Adams will come to visit her and marry her, then he does) is surely more appealling than the film this is from too. At least they cut it off earlyish.
Voice of the Beehive - "Monsters And Angels" Maybe the masterwork of one of the finest powerpop-rock acts of recent years. So in love with this, the best thing on the show by far.
Proper curate's egg edition. Very good in parts.
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vya
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Post by vya on Aug 22, 2021 20:49:58 GMT 1
11/7, Brookes Maybe getting the DJ to stand alone is a lawsuit avoidance measure or something (not specific or particular to this presenter, but in general)
DJH ft Stefy - I Like It Mediocre forgettable sub-49ers Italo-House unaware that (a) that ship has sailed or sunk (b) this formula has been used far more successfully on countless occasions (c) throwing Aretha Franklin into the mix seldom makes anyone else look good in comparison
Paula Abdul - Rush Rush + charts Still the best thing she's done, doesn't mean it's a classic. Almost all the records I'd care to hear are going down the charts.
OMD - Pandora's Box Pseudo-OMD more like, given what they were, when they were about the music and innovation as well as the lyrics. Decent slightly above-average radio pop, still. Not enough songs about Louise Brooks. But really not much of a chorus, is this?
C&C Music Factory ft Freedom Williams - Things That Make You Go Hmmm... Dance music for the pop charts, much more than their other, recycled but way more credible, number was. Catchy, annoying.
Guns N Roses - You Could Be Mine Loud GnR by numbers.
Billy Bragg - Sexuality The lyrics don't really work, but the sound (advanced jangly indie pop) is an interesting and appealling step forward from his rawer earlier sound. "hard currency hotels", lol. After shilling for Mao last time out, this is a hint he'll probably be mourning the collapse of Soviet tyranny in a few months.
INXS - Bitter Tears An act who over-promise (with a few moments of genius, even beauty) and under-perform with dull sweaty rock moderned-up a bit, as here. Not repulsive.
Bros - Are You Mine? Rhyming "morning" with "dawning" in the opening line is either brave or foolish. This is terribly, sadly, poor and dull.
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - Let The Beat Hit Em In the near absence of competition, possibly the most appealling thing on the show so far, even if it's not much more than a fairly generic bit of post-new jack swing with too many samples for its own good. "beat" and "feet" rhyming, though.
Bryan Adams - Everything I Do (I Do It For You) Not so much men in tights as pants.
Cher - Love And Understanding Has the fingerprints of Diane Warren all over it. While her inoffensive rock mid-paced tracks (perfect background music for chain restaurants) suit Cher better than most, this is a bit half-baked.
God that was a trial
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Post by vya on Aug 15, 2021 23:24:25 GMT 1
4 Jul, Davies
Incognito ft Jocelyn Brown - Always There "Such a good feeling, that's where I wanna be." Says it all. Fantastic in all regards. (Reluctantly I suppose we have Black Box to thank for bringing this oh so soulful vocal style back to the charts. And how much better it is with the real singer gaining credit and respect for it.)
Natalie Cole & Nat "King" Cole - Unforgettable Still don't know what to make of this. Nothing wrong with either the song or the performances, but the semi-posthumous duet is an odd concept: homage or invasion?
Cola Boy - 7 Ways To Love In retrospect it's more obvious that this is Saint Etienne in disguise than it was then. (As it sounds like later rather than 1991 SE). But, well, it's also easy to tell why they didn't put it out under their own name, as it is very minor for an act who can actually write songs, if not devoid of nice touches. At least tell us what the 7 ways are!
Anthrax ft Chuck D - Bring The Noise I wonder what Anthrax think of Farrakhan, who gets a plug here? PE were never devoid of unpleasant opinions, Anthrax probably a bit dumb/unaware of what he is/they were about. Muscially the combination of rap and thrash works really well.
Kim Appleby - Mama Gentle and sweet and humane song with a singalong character and a few twists and turns in melody.
Heavy D & The Boyz - Now That We Found Love Insistent, annoying. Well constructed, no doubt.
Breakers (not cut to shreds now) Queensryche - Best I Can: Marillion mixed with motivational lyrics C&C Music Factory ft Freedom Williams - Things That Make You Go Hmmm...: glad they've found a second tune Billy Bragg - Sexuality: the video may be the only time Bragg implictly admits how ridiculous he is. Nice to see Kirsty MacColl there. Musically not bad
Jesus Loves You - Generations Of Love Boy George mid-reinventing himself, vaguely Spanish guitars and consertina mixed in with the housiness. Rather better than the Hare Krishna thing he did, but seems a bit incomplete.
Vanilla Ice - Rollin' In My 5.0 Put your shirt on man. And don't make any more records. As with his big hit, the bassline and general spaciousness is the best bit, the rap (both lyrics and the dire NWA imitation) the worst bit. Yeah good Steve Miller sample.
Jason Donovan - Any Dream Will Do He is no Kylie
Whitney Houston - My Name Is Not Susan Surprisingly (if not unprecedently) weak single for Whitney
Not the most impressive edition
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Post by vya on Aug 14, 2021 14:41:55 GMT 1
27 June, Mayo
Cubic 22 - Night In Motion Simple, no holds barred NW Euro rave with chill-out zone interlude. No pretentions, thankfully. Party time. Much better than many such tracks.
Paula Abdul - Rush Rush Almost but not quite too polished. Obviously it's fairly bland, but not complete rubbish. Charts not promising.
Erasure - Chorus Wax models of keyboardists and priests. We're not in Basildon any more. Sharp outsized tartan outfit. At this point in their career Erasure can almost do no wrong. Imperial period. A bit less eccentric or ground-breaking than some of their songs, but a bit of a belter. No idea what the waxworks are about.
Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid Worse anti-drugs pop songs have been recorded. The Grange Hill one, for example. For all the usual AC theatre, this is nearly pedestrian.
Omar - There's Nothing Like This Well worth the re-release (now how about that B-side he did with Mica Paris getting a new life?), a bit of new mellowness of acid-jazz-adjacent that stays just the right side of falling asleep or becoming too self-indulgent. Summery.
Breakers: Chesney Hawkes - I'm A Man Not A Boy: verging on the hilariously bad, he knows his time is up. Incognito ft Jocelyn Brown - Always There: such a singer, such a song, a real hurricane, delightful
Lenny Kravitz - It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over Mayo's "i know all about football" stuff is getting annoying. The song is pleasant background music.
Bryan Adams - Everything I Do (I Do It For You) Bland moody rock ballad with big film backing. Hopefully this is the last we'll hear of it.
Divinyls - I Touch Myself Surprisingly late 70s aesthetics, somewhere in the region of the Cramps a bit more than the B-52s. Musically too it could have been from then. Better times, musically for sure.
Jason Donovan - Any Dream Will Do Oh make it end please. I mean Lloyd-Webber and Rice are an even greater downer than Jase.
Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - Sheriff Fatman So very much worth the re-release, even if the punning is going to get grating eventually. The musical accompaniment is a thing here too. A real phenomenon, something as uniquely Londonish as William Blake.
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Post by vya on Aug 9, 2021 20:36:41 GMT 1
20 June, Campbell
Rebel MC, Tenor Fly, Barrington Levy - Tribal Base Such a groove. The sound of the summer. And [the name Rebel MC being placed first on the credits apart] surely not made with the charts in mind at all (although in London Kiss FM were now giving the sort of reggae you'd otherwise have to had to go to Dub Vendor to buy a wider audience.). And some story in the lyrics too. Never lets up. Utterly magnificient.
Salt N Pepa - Do You Want Me (& charts) Actually this is rather good, really a grower. In the charts , a fabulous Primal Screen track at 40, proving everyone can make something worthwhile, some other good chart entries, albeit mainly re-issues that were ignored first time out....
LaTour - People Are Still Having Sex Sometime rather early 80s, maybe even late 70s, the primitive synthesisers and spaciousness, about the sound, but the lyrics are post-AIDS for sure. Minimalistic, cleverly structured musically. Not bad at all. And copious irony always helps.
Extreme - Get The Funk Out Frat boy rock. At least they don't prance around in the nude wearing only socks, like maybe the most irritating proponent of this sound right now. Patrick Bateman would find it moving and engaging.
Kenny Thomas - Thinking About Your Love The unpretentious fun of a summer evening on the esplanade on Canvey, I'll take that.
Breakers Cubic 22 - Night In Motion: raw NW European house, fine. Carter USM - Sheriff Fatman: 2nd time out, delinquent PSBs with bad puns, fantastic and characterful Omar - There's Nothing Like This: 2nd time out, real soul, deep and pure Paula Abdul - Rush Rush: a major advance on her previous work, yes polished and corporate still though
Driza Bone - Real Love More summery soul, agreeable rather than breathtaking, but melodious and sounds more heartfelt than manufactured. Female vocals + male rap interlude is a bit formulaic by now, but this is better than most.
Jason Donovan - Any Dream Will Do Probably working with Lloyd Webber is a better direction than the pop hearthrob route for Jase. Both are marmite I suppose. Not my chosen spread.
Bette Midler - From A Distance 2nd time out. Very similar approach to that which she took on "Wind Beneath Your Wings". Well, if it worked once... The song is superior to this treatment, but too good to be destroyed by pre-programmed backing tracks. They at least are spacious. Not saying I am quite getting Hillary Clinton vibes here (or not), but the problem is that this song could be sung by a US Secretary of State seconds before they call in the bombers in a "I am sorry but we are doing this for your own good" manner)... I admit I like it, but....it is very American Elite....Nanci Griffith's version is better
Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up This is decidedly the superior version of the song, indeed I'm worried it may be growing on me. Like mould. I don't think Kenny Thomas could quite hit some of these notes either. Gosh.
Rod Stewart - The Motown Song A real sing-along, as is precisely the point. Similar kind of respectful appeciation as the Pasadenas' "Tribute", and of course Rod throws himself into it wholeheartedly. Nice.
Surprised how much I enjoyed that.
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Post by vya on Aug 8, 2021 23:47:32 GMT 1
13.06 Brambles, something odd about the studio setup, hmm. And graphics too. Hmm. Not sure about this.
Sonia - Only Fools (Never Fall In Love) Actually a step in the right direction by the New Generation's Cilla Black. Ditching SAW (or being ditched by them) has paid off. But well the only way was up. Sounds like it should be a cover version, but isn't. Almost good. Fun, even.
Amy Grant - Baby Baby With the charts (all the way from 40 to no 2 which is this) displayed over the video, oh they are playing/experimenting again. The song is too bland, really, still, although her voice and earnestness are attractive. In general I am pro-Amy Grant but this so far from her best... (Some quite excellent new entries, here, though, notably Massive Attack and Rebel MC et al, hope we see them...) This may still be the worst way of doing the charts for some time...
Gloria Estefan - Remember Me With Love It wasn't that long ago that her records (with MSM credited) were innovative, attractive, but now that corporate pap has taken over this is an almost unforgettably distant memory. A pity. But this is dreadful. Or maybe too dull to even reach that.
All About Eve - Farewell Mr Sorrow As usual I love their English semi-folky rural melancholy tinged with hope and pseudo-spirituality. It'd be pushing it to claim this is even halfway close to what they are capable of, though. Not complicated enough. Still, I bought it, and still listen to it today, so.
Divinyls - I Touch Myself Australian acts who have never had a hit, not even in their own country, despite being around for a decade...well, there's the Go-Betweens...Don't think they've have sung this, quite. This is fresh, exciting, mildly gripping, and not at all characteristic of the sounds of 1991, and all the better for it. Lenny Kravitz - It Ain't Over Til It's Over Like Sonia's song, sounds like it should be a cover but isn't. Like Sonia's song (and like well his back catalogue to date) a blatant and constant pastiche of styles in years past. But...for once it works pretty well, as the song is smooth, flowing and summery and less self-indulgently knowing than he can be. Very agreeable.
Massive Attack - Safe From Harm Supreme and sublime, glorious in every way. And combining female vocals and male rap/spoken word interlude the proper way. And that bass. Spine-chillingly brilliant. Not sure this (still) isn't their career peak. It doesn't get better than this. Nothing gets better than this.
Breakers (all notably higher in the charts than Massive Attack and AAE) Rod Stewart - The Motown Song: cut off just before the chorus, logically. I am a sucker for Rod though, and this is good. Extreme - Get The Funk Out: a bit annoying, like they want to be Faith No More or something Bette Midler - From A Distance: not necessarily the best version of this fine song (the instrumentation is too by numbers, for one thing), but, still, it's so good LaTour - People Are Still Having Sex: cut off very quickly, and well, not so good
Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up Lots of songs unambigiously about sex around now. This is, err, not the best of them. At least they are miming along to the superior of the two very different versions of the track doing the rounds this time, unlike the video on previous ToTPs. Actually a vast, substantial improvement, but a substantial improvement on something very poor doesn't count for that much. You dig? No, but. Like to think this might be it's final week at no 1, but the effective disappearance of the top 10 from the show makes it difficult to sense what might replace it...
Skid Row - Monkey Business Well they were pure adolescent rock with no pretence at anything more (not a bad thing), but on songs like "18 and Life" or "I Remember You" showed off a sensitive as well as a melodious side. This is more of a rock-out that is much harder to get into, or to want to. The singer's voice suits this type of music well though - unusually so, it really reaches out to and beyond the listener. The song is surely an album track at most though.
Mostly a, surprisingly, in places, very very, strong and enjoyable edition. Apart from the Beeb being silly in playing about with the format as usual, and still cutting songs off too early, etc
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Post by vya on Aug 1, 2021 12:24:49 GMT 1
Six June, the new successor to Brookes
Northside- "Take 5" The sneering tone of lyrics, the shifting up a gear for the chorus and the driving bass and continuity jangling all give this a surprising degree of appeal. Very Mancunian, in a strictly Greater Manchester way. Not bad.
Pet Shops Boys - "Jealousy" Going beyond pop, maybe inspired by their (winning) Minnelli collab. Serious, adult (and another song about romantic infidelity after "So Hard"), maybe one might question whether his voice can pull this off, but it's not a definite "no". Also appealling.
Marillion - "Cover My Eyes (Pain and Heaven)" After "Easter" the second sign that Hogarthian Marillion might turn out to be a more attractive option than Fishy Marillion. Less Tolkienesque (perversely: chuck in some Bronte allusions in the lyrics for good measure, why not?), fresher, freer, while retaining the great expanse and landscape that the band at their best managed to conjure up. A good thing.
Salt N Pepa - Do You Want Me Mellow and assertive, not sure it quite fits together as well it might to be memorable or cohesive, but more positive than negative.
Charts: Living Colour! Otherwise, a fair bit of tedium. And the highest "new entry" was a big hit several years earlier.
Madonna - Holiday Talking of which....well, it's obviously a sing-a-long jingle, just not contemprorary or exciting (remix or no)
Kenny Thomas - Thinking About Your Love With a proper orchestra behind him, like he'd have had in the 70s, this would be a singalong summer classic pumping from cars on Canvey seafront. Without one it's decent. Likeable, still.
Breakers: Living Colour - Solace Of You: Understated, sublime Gloria Estefan - Remember Me With Love: Understated, not sublime Harry Connick, Jr - It Had To Be You: Understated, anything but sublime DiVinyls - I Touch Myself: Anything but understated, it's no Turning Japanese
Kirsty MacColl- Walking Down Madison Not necessarily convinced the dance mix treatment with male rap interlude thing really suits KMacC, but everyone else is doing it... And it's not as if many of her previous singles have sold half of what they should have. Having a stage full of dancers is cool here though. A welcome presence in the charts, still. More Kirsty, less Dannii is a good adage. (also, she makes the same "sleeping hands under head" gesture on this edition that Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue had made on the other repeat of this batch).
Color Me Badd - "I Wanna Sex You Up" Really we need to ban songs from film soundtracks being eligible for the charts. No good comes from this crossover.
REM- "Shiny Happy People" Enough already
The atrocious no 1 aside (and REM playout), that was one of the more solid editions for some time, noticeable that dipping just outside the top 40 helped though...
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vya
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Post by vya on Aug 1, 2021 11:57:01 GMT 1
23 May, Wooooh
T'Pau - Whenever You Need Me Crisp and refreshing, if maybe leaning towards the still attractively bland, whereas as their best T'Pau could be utterly gripping. Wonder what would have happened had they developed the rhythmic approach taken on "Heart and Soul" rather than the rockier direction that evolved. Best pop act from Shrewsbury for sure. I like it, not a lot.
Color Me Madd - I Wanna Sex You Up What, all of you? Gross.
Simple Minds - See The Lights By the standards of what had become the vanity stadium act of Willie Low Bono, this is less tedious and mildly less pompous than other recent offences to be taken into consideration. They once promised so much more.
Charts: Curve!!!! Siouxsie (on the nixed edition from next week)! Otherwise, a mix of tolerable and intolerable.
Beverley Craven - Promise Me There are far worse examples of this genre doing the rounds. Suburban rather than malevolent.
REM - Shiny Happy People Crossing the boundary between quirky and annoying. (I suppose a B-52s tie up increases the probability of that happening). Don't do that. An act who have done and will do much more·
Wonder Stuff - Caught In My Shadow "From Birmingham" apparently. Ish. Brummies (and Black Country folk I guess) having fun in the video. The song is inoffensive, and Miles' ranting pace superior to the song overall.
Deacon Blue - Your Swaying Arms Not all convincing as an opening single for an album. A pity, as it's rather lovely, tenderness with gratuitious Glaswegian geographic references. And sheltered Kelvin Way in the early 90s was lovely too. A charming album track.
Queen - Headlong Bland
Cher- The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss") "Still at the top". So it is. Could be worse.
Technotronic ft Reggie - Move That Body Appears they might have found a second or third tune if not key to lyric-writing. Probably shouldn't have bothered.
That was not good
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vya
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Post by vya on Jul 30, 2021 21:50:41 GMT 1
Apparently the 30th May edition was skipped because of a lack of clearances to rebroadcast the video for the Doors' "Light My Fire". Bit annoying, as they could have just cut it out...
Not sure why Northside and Marillion (the latter with a fantastic song) were on while at 41 and 42, but it was a one-off, not the start of a trend. I presumed that acts higher in the charts were unavailable so they thought "why not...."
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vya
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Post by vya on Jul 24, 2021 17:20:04 GMT 1
16 May, Brookes in a ridiculous NFL jacket and cap
New Kids On The Block - Call It What You Want In the studio (their 1st time?), doing lyrics live, and not doing them better for it. Not that this was any cop to begin with. Surely their time is nearly up, especially if, as this performance suggests, their aim to be reinvent themselves as rap-focussed. All the energy is put in the dance moves. Bad. Screams (not all of agony) from audience notwithstanding.
Soft Cell & Marc Almond - Tainted Love (remix) A very fine thing, of course, but this remix, while not quite offensive, is barely necessary, adding a thankfully thin strip of varnish on the original rawness.
Cathy Dennis - Touch Me (All Night Long) The best parts of this are the bits outside the sung verses and chorus. The "oooooh" at the very beginning, for example, and in a few other places. Not nearly enough.
Charts. Breathtakingly unexciting and rather naff things dominating the climbers and new entries.
Dannii Minogue - Success Oh god even more nightclub-threatening than her debut. She still can't sing. There is still barely anything resembling a tune here, anyway. Music for soulless robots who don't like music and don't like dancing either. Fail. Makes her sister sound like Aretha.
Breakers (brutally short excerpts) REM - Shiny Happy People: a proper song, with real potential to become irritating very quickly, it seems Flowered Up - Take It: A Cockney Mondays. Actually rather good fun in its overblown absurdity T'Pau - Whenever You Need Me: could be from 1987, some proper songwriting going on here, but surely their time has, unfortunately passed Wilson Phillips - You're In Love: melodious and mellow and only slightly dull
Crystal Waters - Gypsy Woman Talking of the real potential to become irritating very quickly. Probably would be renamed as Romx Ciswoman and repackaged by Diversity, Equity and Inclusion consultants charging $$$$$ today. Yes, dance music for people who work in Corporate HR. No need to inflict it on everyone else though., is there?
Amy Grant - Baby Baby Wholesome, winsome, even. Unchallenging, though, as her better work isn't.
Jason Donovan - R.S.V.P. Surely (given he has now transferred to musicals) he has realised that SAW are taking the p out of him now, giving him their castoffs, just as he is too by "strumming the guitar" here, as elsewhere. More screaming from the crowd, but it might well be agony, ouch at the key change, and the lyrics, and not only. Verging on being hilariously naff.
Cher - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) That's where it is, allegedly
Color Me Badd - I Wanna Sex You Up Hmm, they are playing the slightly more complex version of this, rather than the main radio version. Which if anything weakens the chorus. Which admittedly deserves to be weakened. The tick-tock rhythm drum is maybe the most appealling thing here.
Really an atrocious edition
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vya
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Post by vya on Jul 24, 2021 10:53:39 GMT 1
9 May Davies
Electronic - Get The Message (DNA Groove Mix) Sounds more like New Order than the unremix, more space, less guitar-driven. Better? No. Different? Yes. Clubbier, that too. More generic? That also.
Charts Uncompromising Weddoes track there. Climbers and new entries mostly not wildly inspiring.
Seal - Future Love Paradise Getting Wendy and Lisa on his LP is a quiet coup, underrated tho they be. Gorgeous understated introduction, and almost almost as genre-bending as Prince can be, if less daring. His voice and some creative instrumentation make this more than the sum of its parts (insert from "Killer" included). Promising.
Roxette - Fading Like A Flower Mainstream and formulaic (but still emotive) pop done extremely, extremely, well. A triumph of factory production. More Milton Keynes than Hemel Hempstead.
Top 5 albums of April REM - Losing My Religion Rod Stewart - Rhythm Of My Heart Roxette - Joyride Simple Minds - Let There Be Love Eurythmics - Love Is A Stranger
Beverley Craven - Promise Me Darling of MOR radio, as wine bar background music goes this is pretty decent for those who seek out this sort of thing. Not that much piano tinkling on ToTP right now. And the tension in the song is carefully managed.
Michael Bolton - Love Is A Wonderful Thing There is so much wrong with this it is difficult to know where to start. To be kind, bland. Even Huey Lewis and the News would have passed on this.
T99 - Anastasia Mean and moody and menacing-ish. Great samples and baseline, and unusually the rap adds rather than detracts or diverts. Then the forceful female vocals come in. Experimental, this would have been strictly for a much more limited audience two years earlier. Not bad at all.
Cher - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) Not the worst thing to get to no 1 on the back of a film soundtrack, at least.
Blur - There's No Other Way OK not bad at all
A very tolerable edition, even if it never quite caught fire or included anything outstanding. Had quite forgotten how much the Beeb were behind Jeffrey Archer's charitable efforts of uncertain consequence (even if one of the leading figures involved, whom the Hon of WSM Candidate of Credibility and Integrity called "Lemon kurd", is now, in 2021, in the government)
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vya
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Post by vya on Jul 18, 2021 20:47:24 GMT 1
2 May(o)
KLF - Last Train To Trancentral With costumes and kit, more visual theatre on TOTP than has been the case since the 70s use of interpretative dance troupes ended. More menacing train guards than most . Crazy entertainment, much more than the (fairly modest) sum of its parts, many of which we've heard already...
Cathy Dennis - Touch Me (All Night Long) Spacious dancy pop, or poppy dance, marginally less bland (and with a better tune) than that Dannii Minogue track, but nowt special.
Charts: The underrated Lonnie Gordon track at 40 beats most of the others named here, Frances Nero apart.
OMD - Sailing On The Seven Seas It's OK. Though one expects much more of the act going by this name.
Samantha Janus - A Message To Your Heart Our Eurovision entry, not in the charts yet. Lyrically a rewrite of the previous years offering, but musically (and 1983 Sweet Dreams style production) something of an improvement on that. Almost bland. Too wholesome, certainly lyrically. Ludicrously so, even. Still, a bit of a guilty pleasure.
Nomad - Just A Groove Only a hit on the back of their previous one. Neither catchy pop nor credible house, just the waste of a few minutes. Time for this nomad to move on.
Zucchero & Paul Young - Senza Una Donna (Without A Woman) Could be bland. Could be preposterous. Could be neither. Not sure.
Frances Nero - Footsteps Following Me More than a hint of Northern Soul in this. A glorious, wonderful thing with wide appeal. An old Motown singer getting a first hit single aged 47 is an inspiration too. Love love it.
Cher - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) Even more retro. But she's done her time, too.
Roachford - Get Ready A welcome return for Roachford, but this track is rather too subtle for its own good, and the chorus threatens to turn into an advert for something new agey or wellnessy.
Moderately brutal cuts of some of the studio performances tonight, sometimes well-deserved, though. But not a classic set of songs. Sam Janus maybe the second best of them! Somehow.
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vya
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Post by vya on Jul 18, 2021 15:31:50 GMT 1
25.04 Campbell promising "lewd gyrations" (hopefully not from him)
EMF - Children Too blatantly manufactured an imitation or emulation of indie rock, surely. More air-conditioned office in Cheltenham than former miners' club (or even youth club) in Cinderford. More importantly, barely a tune or a song or lyrics of note here. Not the Manics of the Forest.
De La Soul - Ring Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey) "The Beatles of Rap": problem is that as reference points go Curiosity Killed the Cat is closer a comparison than anyone would like. De La are at least not quite so supercilious. Less irritating than the original song this is based on? Quite possibly. Vaguely pleasant but utterly incidental. Though rap leaning in the direction of emerging acid jazz might be a good thing.
Vic Reeves ft the Roman Numerals - Born Free More marmite than Campbell. Effing annoying man, in my book. Not the right sort of knowing irony to be funny. He can't quite kill this song, but tries his best. The question of sincerity vs insincerity is an even bigger problem than his vocal capabilities. Roman Numerals eating sandwiches on stage. OK. And a whiteboard with drawings of birds on. Far too clever for its own good, without ever being clever.
Charts: Michael Bolton is surely the last thing we need, but there is a lot of unappealling rock here, and Frances Nero, which is rather better.
Electronic - Get The Message This has aged pretty well. Less obviously appealling insta-pop than was their debut, a bit more New Order than PSBs, of course (no Tennant), and a bit more pleasingly forceful, skilled use of instrumental sections. Very English sunny melancholy. Best thing on the show so far by a very long margin.
Breakers (still too short, but not as bad as last week) Roachford - Get Ready: not unpleasant AC/DC - Are You Ready: strictly for AC/DC fans Frances Nero - Footsteps Following Me: can't recall if this was a cover or not, but has the feel of an instant dancefloor and radio classic to me Bananarama - Long Train Running: a cover reinterpreted, but somewhat less than essential, no "Venus"....
Blur - There's No Other Way Oh joy, another Stone Roses tribute act to make up for their decline and disappearance. The simplicity of composition serves this pretty well, that said. The semi-psychedelic late 60s garage rock sound (Stone Roses B-side-styley) is pretty agreeable too. So, better than anticipated.
Gloria Estefan - Seal Our Fate It was a mistake once to turn something that might have worked as a Cherry Coke (or something...) ad song into a full-blown single track. Doing it more than once suggests a serious career miscalculation (and so this one was used on an ad). We seal our fate with the choices we make, indeed. She won't be remembered for as long or as fondly as Virgil or Ovid.
Chesney Hawkes - The One And Only Tolerable slice of mostly rather measured chart pop.
Quadrophonia - Quadrophonia Charmless house music combining itself with a rap and a minor key and trying and failing to sound menacing. (The grandaddy of Magic Affair's "The Omen III" possibly)
Not a brilliant edition.
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vya
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Post by vya on Jul 10, 2021 0:11:18 GMT 1
18 Apr, Brambles
James - Sit Down A big warm-hearted crafted gem of a song. I fear they've missed out on no 1 by now tho cossa Chezza, more's the pity.
Cher - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) Back to the 60s it is then. Well no-one bought the original, and Cher's more recent work hasn't generally quite got the attention it deserved, so why not?
OMD - Sailing On The Seven Seas Obviously, not peak OMD, which is of course Everestine. Arguably not really OMD. But. As ever, competent, slick, mildly accomplished pop. The beat is the thing here. Welcome, yes, but it's no Joan of Arc nor Dazzle Ships fodder.
Charts: woo Frances Nero, but otherwise, mostly, well, whatever (why are Bananarama still putting off "Tripping On Your Love" and releasing inferior material). Oh a superior slice of The Clash too!
Black Box - Strike It Up Not so much unpleasant (it's not) as unnecessary. An album track at best.
Clash - Rock The Casbah Just as well they waited for the Gulf War to end before rereleasing this. But oh my the video.... Great song though
Mock Turtles - Can You Dig It? Something classic northwest English guitar band about this, could have been recorded 25 years earlier maybe. Really pleasant, no more, no less.
Breakers: (tiny excerpts of each this week) ZZ Top - My Head's In Mississippi: not notably remember Gloria Estefan - Seal Our Fate: too commerical to be charming Silver Bullet - Undercover Anarchist: not too commerical, err Transvision Vamp - (I Just Wanna) B With You: retro and stripped down, not bad, actually Pete Wylie & The Farm - Sinful: there is no need for this, the Farm improve nothing
Zucchero & Paul Young - Senza Una Donna (Without A Woman) "even doin' my own cookin'" OK, "I'm a flower" What? It is what it is. Formulaic, but not a horrid formula. They can both sing anyway.
Chesney Hawkes - The One And Only Call me by my name, or call me by my number. You have a number? OK
The Simpsons - Deep Deep Trouble Atrocious.
Play-out track aside, a fairly sound episode
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