The James video last night got another great song lodged in my head – this one by the Manchester synth-pop supergroup of New Order’s Bernard Sumner, The Smiths’ Johnny Marr, and (for a time) Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant – collectively known as Electronic. Their debut 1990 single “Getting Away With It” applied classicist songwriting to a house music sound, and even briefly hit the U.S. Top 40. 20 years later, it still sounds sweet.
James – Pleased To Meet You (2001)
In this time of economic uncertainty, high unemployment, pop culture run amok and general mass hysteria, it’s nice to know that there’s always James. Five minutes of James and everything is better. Five minutes of James can balance the national budget, provide jobs and healthcare for all, and inspire Kim Kardashian to go back to school and find the biophysicist within. Don’t believe me? That’s fine. You don’t have to take my word for it. Instead, you can watch the testimonials given by the beneficiaries of James’s healing qualities in this strangely affecting video for their single “Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)”, from the Manchester band’s 2001 album Pleased To Meet You. The cleverness of the video is one thing – getting random folks on the streets of New York City to both “testify” and sing along to a song that I can’t imagine any of them had heard prior to their fateful meeting with a camera crew. But the timing of it – just months before 9/11 – haunts the video; and frankly, everything that’s happened since – the war, the economic collapse, George W. Bush legitimately winning a second term in office – also haunts the video. My personal favorite moment is the old couple on the street at about 0:58 singing happily to each other “We’re insured.” They look so happy! You can’t underestimate the healing power of that moment. I feel frickin’ awesome already. Thank you, James! A thousand times, thank you. All six or seven of you!
It was just about a year ago when most of us first heard of Iyaz via his debut single “Replay”, which ruled the airwaves all last fall ultimately reaching the top of the Billboard Pop chart. The Beluga Heights (j-j-j-j-j-r) artist and Sean Kingston protege (wait, Sean Kingston’s old enough to have a protege?) followed that song up with the lovely “Solo”, which copped a hook from Janet Jackson but failed to really take off at radio this spring; he’s since made guest appearances on singles by two teen pop newcomers, Charice and Auburn. Here he’s returning with his third single, another summery sweet, and squeaky clean Carribean-flavored dance pop dittie that should go over well with all the kiddies. And by kiddies, I mean toddlers. How big is Iyaz’s love for you? Sooo big! How big is Iyaz gonna spend it up? Sooo big! How big a hit is this song going to be? Sooo… err… well, we’ll see. (Aww, man, not “we’ll see”! I hated when my mom said that!)
