Saint Etienne – Nothing Can Stop Us
If I had a lab and made a pop group in a sort of Weird Science-y way, Saint Etienne is what I would come up with. When I chanced upon Foxbase Alpha in 1991 I […]
a-ha – Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale
Choosing singles can be a hard job – get it right and you have massive hits on your hands, a successful album and if you’re lucky, a range of dolls […]
Ruth Lorenzo – Dancing in the Rain
This may be an unpopular viewpoint, but something went terribly, terribly wrong at last year’s Eurovision Song Contest. While it was amazing in all kinds of ways that Conchita Wurst triumphed on […]
ABBA – When All is Said and Done
Knowing when to leave a party is a trick that not many pop stars have learned – realising that the lights are about to come up and making a dignified […]
Mylène Farmer – Désenchantée
We return now to the realm of French pop and its undisputed queen, Mylene Farmer. Were you inclined to put Madonna and Pet Shop Boys into a blender and blitz on full power […]
The Other Two – Selfish
There are perhaps no words in pop more terrifying than Side Project. A side project occurs when one or more members of a successful band form another one in between […]
Talk Talk – Living in Another World
No-one could ever accuse Talk Talk of selling out for short-term gain. More than any other band of their time they appeared to be on a very specific journey, one that […]
Summer Camp – Fresh
If you’ve ever wondered what Modern Romance fronted by a Nolan sister would sound like, look no further. Channelling 1981 to quite spectacular effect, Summer Camp‘s Fresh is a wonderful dollop of supperclub […]
Tegan and Sara – I Was a Fool
This is the record that answers the question no-one was asking: if Barbara Dickson and Elaine Paige were lesbian twin sisters from Canada, what would they sound like? The answer […]
Kelly Clarkson – Catch My Breath
There’s a slightly strange phenomenon in pop that I like to call Crap Single From a Greatest Hits Syndrome and it is surprisingly common. Many such collections are marred by the inclusion […]
Susanna Hoffs – My Side of the Bed
A certain type of person will thrill with anticipation when they look at a song’s credits and see the names Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, because they know that unless things have gone horribly, […]
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – If You Leave
This song takes me back to the time I wanted to go to the high school prom but I didn’t think I was good enough compared to all the rich kids. My dad […]
‘Til Tuesday – Voices Carry
It’s to our great shame as a nation that ‘Til Tuesday never made it big in the UK. They had the haircuts – presumably bought at a car boot sale held […]
Diana Vickers – Cinderella
Well now, this is sad. And not a little ironic. Diana Vickers enjoyed something of a Cinderella story herself, bringing a barefoot breathy quality to 2008’s X Factor before doing a triumphant West End […]
Penguin Prison – Don’t Fuck With My Money
I’m never too sure about the word “fuck” in pop. Its use always feels slightly like an act of self-sabotage in that your record either gets saddled with a bleeped out […]
Sarah Cracknell – Ready or Not
Solo careers are a tricky thing – just ask Rachel Stevens. Sometimes people go it alone purely for purposes of artistic expression, sometimes they’re refugees from a recently imploded band, and sometimes they’ve […]
Cyndi Lauper – My First Night Without You
…in which Cyndi Lauper channels Ben E. King and demonstrates what it would be like to have someone go through a complete emotional breakdown right in front of you, all in the space of three minutes. […]
Frazier Chorus – Nothing
Frazier Chorus, we hardly knew thee. Gosh, remember the trend for slightly fey indie bands discovering drugs and going a bit dancey? It was quite the thing in the early […]
France Gall – Ella Elle L’a
. FRENCH POP ALERT! You can count on one hand the number of French-language hits that made the crossover to the UK charts. Joe le Taxi. Voyage Voyage. Dominique. Je T’aime…Moi Non Plus. […]
ABC – Ocean Blue
Perceived wisdom has it that ABC went a bit rubbish after The Lexicon of Love, and although I hate to say it, perceived wisdom was perhaps onto something. No doubt there are […]
