Finding Out True Love Is BlindLouis XIVout now« «« «This week’s first release comes from the weird and wonderful world of Louis XIV. Finding Out True Love is Blind, from the album The Best Little Secrets Are Kept, is an odd mix of sound effects, piano and a driving beat that links it all together. It’s hard to know whether or not to like this song. It’s certainly different, often breaking down to pure vocals with strange lyrics. It changes, grows, pulls, and leaves the listener wanting more but not knowing why. It effortlesslydoes what any good single should do: gives you a four-minute hit of the essence of the band. Surely it is alone in bringing a strange and eclectic style to the so often bland singles chart. A truly remarkable tune, if a somewhat acquired taste, Finding Out True Love Is Blind is a crazy, world-warping experience.Let Me Hold YouBow Wowout now« «Next up is a young man who’s an old hand at the pop music business. Only eighteen, Bow Wow has been in and out of the charts for five years. In Let Me Hold You, the lead up to the release of his Wanted album, he provides a passive R‘n’B tune that goes nowhere fast. Its chorus, while pleasant enough, fails to motivate the track, and the vocal dexterity doesn’t make up for the pointlessnessof a song that will be hit with insomniacs and few others. The pace is wrong and Let Me Hold You sounds disasterously out of date, a problem which is further emphasised by the weak video. While not offensively bad, like so much R‘n’B, it never even threatens to be passable. Bow Wow is due to appear in the third Fast And The Furious film and with a future like that, who needs musical success anyway?New YorkSteven Fretwellout now« «« «In contrast to overexposed Americans, Scunthorpe’s most promising son, Steven Fretwell, announces himself this week with New York. Sweet and sensitive, Steve is up there with the David Grays and James Blunts of this world. Only twenty three, he is a mixture of youthful dreamer and accomplished and experienced musician. Although lacking originality in the subject matter and not breaking any new stylistic ground, this song does what it’s meant to superbly well. It’s a dreamy and gentle leaving song, a staple for the emotional one-man-and-his-guitar artists. New York makes me want to pack up and leave for the bright lights and hope of America’s eternal city. With singer-songwriters like this, who needs anything else? Recommended to all, except homesick freshers.ARCHIVE: 2nd week MT 2005
