Gulp
I Want To Dance (Sonic Cathedral/!K7)
“I want to dance with you, find romance with you,” sings this song. Lyrically it’s not Beckett, but really, what else is life about? Emails about council tax, the woman at work who hates you; these are not life. This – lovely bass throb, wonky psych ripple, synths like sunlight through stained glass – this is the stuff, a mid-tempo machine-sung lullaby. Even the keyboards sound like they’re laughing. Remember how you used to love? Okay, let’s dance.
THIS WEEK’S OTHER RELEASES
Wilkinson Feat Talay Riley
Dirty Love (Ram Records/Virgin)
This begins promisingly, Riley squealing “Drop that dirty love!” like the soundtrack to a sex intervention by a cartoon vice squad. Giddy electro pumps and charging D&B add to the effect, though on further investigation this ecstatic sonic orgasm is a paean to – yawn – DJing. So boring. Why write about basslines and dancing till daylight when you could sing about continental drift or chicken fillets or a sex intervention?
Watermat
Bullit (Polydor)
With a track called Bullit, you expect something that’s going to punch you in the head. So this carousel of mimsy, with its trilling flutes, squeaky tricycle melody and stonking horn blasts like a steamboat running into trouble, can’t help but disappoint. As a bonus letdown, it’s got nothing to do with the Steve McQueen film.
Justice Crew
Que Sera (Sony)
Not the Doris Day classic, which you can’t blame it for. You can, however, blame it for being four minutes of pop dross peddled by a sextet of preening Australian tweezers, who are almost certainly wearing man-thongs under their “young estate agent” suits. The chorus was obviously recorded before it was written, unless “singing la la la la, que sera,” is meant to sound like a French halfwit.
Eminem Feat Sia
Guts Over Fear (Aftermath)
Eminem spews over a diffuse, tidal sigh while Sia wails at intervals like a hired mourner. It’s the recipe for a cake you don’t want, full of ingredients you don’t understand. But this punched-out confessional is his best in ages, anger burning off to reveal retirement anxiety. “What am I going to do when the lights go out?” he implores. Em revs the engine but never quite takes off, a classic motorbike with too many miles on it.
Say Lou Lou x Lindstrøm
Games For Girls (A Deux/Columbia)
Which games are specifically for girls? Netball? Polly Pocket? Hey, Say Lou Lou, here are some games for girls: football, curling, kabaddi, Ludo. DO YOU SEE? Medium-chunky piano house, cutesy triangle tinkle, and nu-disco snap make this is a sugar rush anyone can get down to. Apparently the only exclusively female sport is the gymnastic discipline uneven bars, in which men cannot compete for fear of smacked testicles. I don’t think this is about that, though.
