Bargain Bin: Wasted Conversation and Bad TV

If there's one thing my music collection can boast, it's that it's home to lots of pop songs which were brilliant but ended up erroneously consigned to the Woolies bargain bin for 49p. And sure as well I'm going to go on about them, particularly if it means more people are going to hear about them. Yes, I've gone on about the Rachel Stevens album to most people I know probably enough to last them a lifetime, but what about those odd little songs.

The first I'm going to mention is Abs - 7 Ways. Richard Breen was born in dear ol' Hackney and somewhere along the way acquired the nickname Abs (never mind a dubious Jamaican accent) and joined a boyband. 5ive. 5ive were always my favourite boyband, and the brilliant 5ive megamix (complete with dance routines) soundtracked my time at uni, as well as our most recent houseparty. Then Sean got replaced by a cardboard cutout, and eventually the band split - only to announce their reunion last week. Whether the new 5ive will be much cop is yet to be seen, but I'm all of a sudden understanding my old friends love of J.

Abs went on to be the only member of 5ive to launch a solo career and even went as far to release a whole album - Abstract Theory. The Uptown Top Rankin sampling What U Got was a good starting point charting at #4 and other singles did as well before an acrimonious split with his record label. The poptastic PosterGirl has just posted a blog which goes into much more depth about his album and his singles, but I specifically wanted to talk about the dumped before it was ever released 4th single 7 Ways.

Introduced to me by Poptext Abby last year, 7 Ways is produced by Xenomania's Brian Higgins and is a slowy by his standards. Opening with a soft, chiming electro noise, a melancholy beat continues with Abs softly bemoaning a lost love before Eve (not crazy American rapper woman, but a then, new BMG signing who doesn't appear to have reappeared since) joins in with a soft, wilting chorus. It bizarrely reminds me of brilliant dance track 7 Colours by Lost Witness - c'mon you remember it, big trance-y track '7 colours, come across the sky and I remember my last rainbow' 'After the rain, comes the sun' BOSH BOSH BOSH. I presume this is for more of a reason that both tracks begin with the number 7, as despite 7 Colours being a monstrously big dance track, it seems to me to have a similar vocal style and the female voice reminds me of dear, unknown Eve.

Watch and hear the song here: (n.b. the video is quite rubbish so don't let that put you off)