Single Selection: JLS - The Club Is Alive vs Scissor Sisters - Fire With Fire

I've been very neglectful of blogging this week mainly due to some personal stuff going on! Those who follow me on twitter will know what i'm going on about - and i'll probably give an update in the weekly catch up blog due tomorrow! In the meantime and inbetween time, I'll dive straight into the review of two of the summer's big singles which received premieres/leakage at some point yesterday (next Friday - Kylie!! YAY!)...

Scissor Sisters ~ Fire with Fire: This is very different to the immensicles that is Invisible Light, but after a few listens it is equally as pleasing and amazing. It starts off with a lovely, warm piano riff and Jake's voice comes in sounding delightfully natural and organic. It's essentially a great pop song that has no gimmicks, just keeps building over a strong vocal and persuasive melody until it crescendoes into a soaring epic tune by the time the second chorus kicks in. The lyrics are incredibly uplifting and positive (they progress from remembering they were once number one to realising they are free to be number one if they want to be) and it's all rather wonderful. At times, I thought I was listening to the solo Brandon Flowers single, but the complete package is definitely very Scissor Sisters, and perhaps their pure pop take on the likes of Sex On Fire. This is going to sound very magnificent indeed live. Be sure to check out the much more dark corner of a club sounding Stuart Price remix (courtesy of arjanwrites) of the still intense and still excellent Invisible Light also...

JLS ~ The Club Is Alive: Oh. The much discussed new JLS single has leaked/premiered (I'm not sure which, but hey, I live in a confused post election Britain!) and after a few listens, I do like it. There are some very clever parts of it that work quite well for me. It is certainly what a modern boyband should sound like - part pop, part gimmick and part club. The "Sound of Music" sample is done in the same way that Sugababes worked I'm Too Sexy into their Get Sexy tune, though they could have been a bit more inventive in the way it was done (some wailing operatic nuns wouldn't have gone amiss). The biggest problem is the use of "shawty" and the vocodered to the point of roboticness in the tune. It loses some of the charm that elevated Beat Again and Everybody in Love. Ultimately, it is a catchy tune, it will be lapped up by the fans and it will probably elevate them to the next level of stardom. I just hope their voices shine through a little more on the album...

FYI

• Donkeyboy have just released a rather marvelous remix package of their second single, the elegant and incredible Sometimes. The best is probably the Jason Nevins radio edit which makes it more of a thumping pop pumper than before without losing any of that lovely melody...
• Gravitonas have 77 minutes of remixes on the download package of the soaring (ha!) Kites... My fave (though I haven't persevered with them all yet) is definitely the Soundfactory radio edit which places that heavenly choir in the mix much earlier on. I was introduced (via email) to Andreas (the singer) and given the opportunity to interview them. I'm not very good at these sort of things so any questions would be marvy!

Back tomorrow with The Feeling! Simon Curtis! Same Difference! And the charts...