This is neither the time nor place to have the “Baby One More Time” argument (though I disagree with Ned, whilst admitting that Paul Morley is far too bloated now to have quite that much enthusiasm for young Ms Spears). Two points though, the rock journo they dragged up to despise Brittany based his comments entirely on her – eventually admitting that, okay, the song itself was quite catchy. I’ll admit though that he may not have been using catchy in a good way, malaria is pretty catchy but its no recomendation.
Secondly though, Ned, just because a song can be covered by Travis, does not mean its rubbish. Indeed it puts much of their own stuff into sharp relief showing that even if you do play four to the floor plodrock, if you hide a tune in there it will sound okay. Which is the consternation held by most haters of Travis, Oasis, Coldplay et al. Sometimes they do sneak a half decent melody into a song, which may explain their bizarre success.
Shit. Did I just say that? Still Tom’s doing Thousand – he’ll never notice.