Me Hearties

Songs I acquired at the weekend; a selection.

SHEILA AND B DEVOTION – “Cover Girls”: from an album by the people who did “Spacer”, picked as usual for a promising title. Vigorous disco-rock crossover with a good chorus and some tart lyrics – but a bit slow and the thickness of the Euro-accent is a bit much even for me.

ALCAZAR – “Seasons In The Sun”: on paper a masterpiece, in practise just ‘quite entertaining’ if I’m being honest.

ROB N RAZ ft LEILA K – “Rok The Nation”: follow-up to the AWESOME “Got To Get” – scando-rap with a ‘jazzy inflection’, features the line “mean like S & M bondage”. Passable.

AFRICA BUSINESS – “In Zaire Business”: Utah Saints style stomper with no connection at all to African music past present or future except some beefy men chanting “In Zaire in Zaire”. More Germanic rap. Features ‘woo! yeah!’ sample as used by Bombalurina (and 10,000 others). Strangely likeable.

DR ALBAN – “Let The Beat Go On”: Dr Alban always delivers. “Choosing BPM is a big problem”, he says, “Make up your mind before it is too late – confidence is the key to choose”. Useful advice to all budding producers. At some point though he stops talking about BPMs and starts worrying about hooligans.

LILY AND SUSSIE – “Girl With A Broken Heart (Action Mix)”: Seem to have had a line in SAW copyisms, a style of pop production that’s pretty drab unless the songs are excellent (theirs weren’t). This though mixes that fluffy uptempo feel with a more drawn-out 80s disco influence, and sounds intriguingly like the Hit Factory getting a Pet Shop Boys 12″ remix. It doesn’t quite gel but it’s pretty good.

(There’s plenty more where this came from. Interested?)