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)

Scary shit

I always knew Elmo was evil, but I never expected him to start doing nazi salutes (and generally going apeshit.)

Interviewing Fischerspooner

In 10 days or so (eeeek), I'm going to be interviewing the marvellous Fischerspooner. Emerge has remained a dancefloor classic and despite 2nd album Odyssey not doing very well commerically -  it was my 2nd favourite album of 2005.

So yes, now I'm interviewing them before their performance at Koko as part of Smirnoff and the Electric Cabaret on 12 October. How I'm going to get out of Miss-Shapes that night is a whole other matter and their stage time may leave me shooing James off to DJ while I dance in Camden. So... I might have a free spare ticket to this depending on a few things. Otherwise tickets are still on sale via the koko website if anyone fancies it for the bargain of £6.50!

My dilemma is - Fischerspooner are notoriously not the friendliest of bands. Maybe this is an unfair assumption people make, who knows, but still. I'm a bit shy with interviews anyway but this one is making me cack my pants! How do I talk about the fact that the critics hated Odyssey? And the fact that although I enjoyed their performance at Manumission, not many others knew who they were. All these and many life changing questions are yet to be solved.

But in any case, any fans out there with any questions I can ask the band for you?

Lazy Sunday Links

• "Why, Justin? What are you going to do? Knife me in the spine and rip
  her dress off in front of me? I wouldn't put anything past you by now,
  you hateful, preeping maniac."
  The ever ingenious Charlie Brooker dissects Sexyback.

• Ex Sugababe Siobhan Donaghy goes all Kate Bush on our ass with new song Ghosts.

Alesha - Knockdown

The very lovely Spoony finished a 6 year stint at Radio 1 last week and I've very much enjoyed spending the last two years working with him. I only got round to listening to his last show yesterday (I was out of the country when it was live) before it fell off Radio Player, but with a very funny Mills and Spoon and a couple of guests, I'm glad I did. Hilariously from Oct 3, you can catch him on Strictly Come Dancing, where I expect everyone I know to vote Spoony!

Anyway, that aside, one of his farewell guests was the awesome Alesha. Her brilliant debut single Lipstick charted much lower than it deserved at no.14 and October 16 brings single no.2 Knockdown. Totally different to the in-your-face style of Lipstick, it's reminiscent of Kelis' Trick Me and I guess if I have to say it, of Lily Allen too. The bassline is funky funk and it's pretty immediate. Based on the tracks I've heard, Fired Up, her debut album, is shaping up to be a stonker, and just the two singles alone beat anything on the new Jamelia album. Plus the video version breaks down into an unexpected crazy-voiced Alesha rap to remind us of the good ol' Mis-teeq days. Hooray.

Robbie Williams - Lovelight

This is the video to the new Robbie Williams single Lovelight.

I'm not really sure of Robbie Williams place in the pop world at the moment. His ballads which were once certain top 3's have been getting weaker and weaker, and (excluding Rudebox) when was the last time we had a fun, party tune from the cheeky chapper. To top it off, last album, Intensive Care didn't really go anywhere. Sure, tickets sold out for his tour, but as far as new material went - it was as if he'd suddenly lost his relevance in a world in which he was previously king.

Now less than 12 months after the release of the last album, he's back with new album Rudebox and I can't help but feel it's going to end up a really underrated, forgotten about great album. Above is the video to new single Lovelight and after a few listens I'm gradually getting my head around it. At first it seemed that if I didn't know it was Robbie I'd think it was really cool, but knowing who it is slightly weirds me out. And it's not that I don't like him, Robbie at Knebworth in 2003 is still one of my favourite gigs ever.

Lovelight is a cover of a little known American song and this version is produced by the ever wonderous Mark Ronson. Hearing Robbie falsetto for a whole song is a little strained, but give it a few listens. What do you think? (Could this be any more George Michael by the way)

*sob*

1 single and dropped. :'(

Goodbye Frank. Mr Lampard will now enjoy his own 'Totally Frank'.

Frankly (ha), I'm more than gutted about losing Naomi's celebrity doppleganger.