I send my co-editor, Helen Bach, songs all the time. Needless to add, she seldom sends me any way. But she suddenly send me a whole bunch and so, needless to say, I’m gonna review them.
1. I Should Of – the Pretenders – Off 2002’s Loose Screw album, which I completely missed. A power ballad and a beauty. Chrissie bandies the “f” world, and uses a full orchestra for the breaks. Here voice is such a gorgeous instrument, it aches, it is tender, it is pissed off: the wealth of emotion in that voice has given her a long and lustrous career. Quite why “I Should Of” didn’t hit while, say “I’ll Stand By You -an inferior song, did, I have no idea.
2. Pretty In Pink – Dresden Dolls – Helen has been trying to turn me on to DD for months now but it aint taking. Look at it this way: whatever you might do to a Psychedelic Furs song it is gonna suck because Richard Butler’s voice is such a distinctive neo-Johnny Rotten sneer, your band, in this case DD, sound like fucking pussies.
3. This Is For Real – Motion City Soundtrack – Power pop, pretty good for power pop, and the middle 8 is excellent. But at its best when the organ takes over: an excellent riff.
4. Bones – The Killers – Sam’s Town wasn’t as bad as I thought it was but this song is. A Springsteen-y anthem move with its cap in hand, “And we please sit at the grown-ups table”. Nah, you wuss. Sit down and shut up.
5. Amazed – Joe Cocker – Quite why he got rid of the “Maybe I’m” portion of the title, I don’t know. But I do know all Cocker can do for a song Cockerize it and he is better off with the existentialist weirdness of “With A Little Help From My Friends” then with this classic off Sir Paulie’s first solo album.
6. I Do – Harry Connick Junior – When Connick looks behind him does he see Mike Buble? Maybe, but I wouldn’t worry. His pacing on this syncopated swinger would be the envy of any big band vocalist. First rate.
7. True Romance – Golden Silvxxx – We used to have a word for this, disco. The vocal puts me off a bit but if the bpms were upped a little it wouldn’t be bad.