Single Reviews on CLUAS - March 2001

St. Germain 'Rose Rouge'

Taken from St. Germains’ album ‘Tourist’, ‘Rose Rouge’ will be familiar to listeners of radio or viewers of TV (the track was featured on BBC). The song itself is laid back and jazzy. It features a sample of the voice of Marlena Shaw singing ‘I want you to get together’. Very smooth and pleasant stuff. Tracks two and three are Blaze remixes and are more of the same, but with beats. They are also good but overlong.

Everclear 'AM Radio'

A funky, catchy little pop tune which will no doubt be all over daytime radio shortly. It features a mish-mash of styles which never really go anywhere and the lyrics are a bit empty, but it's decent enough.

Snowblind 'Cut'

Mild indie music with a female singer. The song is pleasant enough in an unthreatening, Texas kind of way. This particular ‘Cut’ is nothing more than a scrape - it doesn’t go too deep. Unexiting.

Gorillaz 'Clint Eastwood'

The voice of Blurs Damon Albarn contrasts with that of a rapper called Russell to create a funky and laid back tune that is well put together. The best of a bad bunch.

Manic Street Preachers 'Found That Soul'

This single sees the Manics coming out of the style that they have adopted for their last few albums. The ‘big chorus and a message’ formula that brought us tunes such as ‘A Design for Life’ is thankfully abandoned. ‘Found That Soul’ is a rocky, catchy song with crashing drums and guitars. It is not as radio friendly as previous singles and is almost a return to the Manics early style.

A1 'No More'

The cover is scary. Four piece boy band with sculptured hair which recalls Neighbours in the 80s. The single come with a free poster which sees the boyz in sexy poses under a palm tree. On the reverse of the poster we are treated to the lyrics of ‘No More’ which gives me the perfect opportunity to delay putting the CD in the stereo by ridiculing the lyrics. We are treated to such poetry as ‘Cuz you know it’s wrong / Better let him know it’s time to go / You’re moving on, Baby you don’t know how close I am to being gone.’ The moment has come and I must listen to the song. Predictably enough it is tacky and horribly commercial. If you are a sucker for punishment listen to track three ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ - live. I will say no more.

Niamh Grimes