The Spiller article Tom linked to gives me the impression that it was written by an indie fan. (At this point I admit that I don’t read Tangents so I’m going entirely on the one article here.)
“Groovejet” is, in effect, no different to recent FatBoy Slim output: it’s obvious and tired and cliched and it’s absolutely fantastic on the dancefloor. The only substantial difference is that FatBoy Slim would not use a vocalist who’d give a performance so thin and dull as Sophie Ellis-Bextor gives on “Groovejet”. Indie fans can make as much of a fuss over the “girl done good” situation which arose, but Sophie is ultimately working as a session singer, and that’s exactly what she sounds like here. If pointing out the fact that Sophie appears on the record gives it indie credibility then who can blame the promoters for doing so? Well, she doesn’t sing it very well but, you know, she used to be in theaudience so it can’t be all that bad, even if it is bloody dance music.
Personally, I’ll dance to it for sure (or would have done before I got fed up of hearing it – about a month before it came out) but I won’t try and pretend it’s anything more than popdance fast food to me. Tom said in his review that “Spiller [has] turned respectable heads.” That’s all great, but it’s those not-at-all-respectable pop kids’ heads that generally get it right, and if “Groovejet” can only manage a week at number one, who are we to argue?