PICK OF THE WEEK
Texas
Are You Ready (PIAS)
I feel like Texas frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri has been unjustly left out of the vocal hall of fame. She has as many, if not more, good songs than say, Kate Bush, but has been passed up and punted over to the Radio 2 graveyard. Her impeccable ability to create powerful, quietly pronounced music is again evidenced in Texas’ new song Are You Ready. Like the best tracks you’d find on the Dumb & Dumber soundtrack (srsly), it’s all sultry vocals, garage rock and clipped basslines. And Spiteri’s voice has so much warm authority to it, like a mother assuring their crying child that their snotty ex is just the first of many.
Ricky Martin Feat Pitbull
Mr Put It Down (Sony Music Latin)
It’s easy to take pot shots at Pitbull, just as it was with Ricky Martin all those moons ago, but now the two have joined forces against the haters with Mr Put It Down. And what a response it is; a thumping Spring Break-styled banger, the soundtrack to a won game of beer pong, to wearing four pairs of sunglasses, to drinking glo-stick liquid and having your stomach pumped while your friends do cocaine in A&E. Summer is around the corner.
Dr And The Medics
You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) (IRS Records)
Christ almighty. Dr And The Medics, best known for their almost indistinguishable-from-the-original cover of Spirit In The Sky, have done another cover, very distinguishable from the original. Their rendition of this Dead Or Alive hit is terrifying, like something from a future in which dads rule the Earth and are all in bands doing covers of songs to make them sound more heterosexual. Chugging guitars, deep-toned vocals: they’ve taken everything sexy from the original and made it sound like something you’d hear blaring from a stand at the Goodwood Festival Of Speed.
Lawson
Roads (Polydor)
It’s quite bemusing that boyband stylists are still putting these handsome men in drop-neck shirts and porkpie hats, but here Lawson are, wearing exactly that in the video for their new audible Xanax, Roads. The lyrics to this song sound like they were ripped from a thousand different inspirational Facebook posts and jumbled up in a bingo machine. I don’t even really know who this music is for. I mean, teenage girls, obviously, but teenage girls aren’t stupid, and they deserve better than this effortless mannequin-borne drivel.
Florence And The Machine
Ship To Wreck (Island)
Everyone’s favourite flame-haired warbler is back for another round of delicate whispers mixed in with just plain shouting. In Ship To Wreck, Florence hasn’t really changed her shtick all that much, though her backing tracks are a lot less pomp and circumstance and a lot more major-label indie. I reckon even a dyed-in-the-wool Flo-rider will notice there’s not a lot here to be excited about.
