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  • Commercial-isms: Volkswagen Passat vs. Madness “It Must Be Love”

    Commercial-isms: Volkswagen Passat vs. Madness “It Must Be Love”

    It Must Be Love

    Always much more popular in their native Britain, the seven-man new wave ska band Madness are mainly (and somewhat erroneously) known here as a one hit wonder. That hit, “Our House” which hit the Billboard Top 10 in the summer of ’83, remains a staple of 80s party playlists. It’s a great song, but it’s tended to overshadow the rest of the band’s copious singles catalog from their classic 1979 45 “One Step Beyond” (The best instrumental single of the 70s? Oh yes, probably.) to quirky numbers like “Baggy Trousers” and the so-adorable-so-heartbreaking “My Girl”: “Why can’t she see, she’s lovely to me, but I like to stay in and watch TV on my own every now and then.”

    Madness “My Girl” (1979)

    “My Girl” was the second of more than a dozen top ten singles the band had in the U.K. But it took four years for the band to get any airplay here. After “Our House” finally broke the band to a big American audience, instead of releasing a new song as the follow-up, they reached back into their catalog for one of their most beloved previous hits, “It Must Be Love”, a cover of a 1972 song by folk-pop singer-songwriter Labi Siffre which went to #4 in the UK in 1981. (This selection only made sense in that the group’s self-titled U.S. debut album was essentially a greatest hits compilation – Labi Siffre was even more unknown to U.S. audiences than Madness was. He still is.) “It Must Be Love” wasn’t a total flop – it still managed to break into the American Top 40, but it never made it into the second hour of Casey Kasem’s weekly broadcast. Nevertheless, it remains the band’s second-biggest American hit, and until Volkswagen started airing commercials for the new Passat, it was mostly forgotten, even by the 80s kids.

    Madness “It Must Be Love” (1981)

    Madness’s cover of “It Must Be Love” was and remains Labi Siffre’s biggest American hit. Most of his albums weren’t even released in the U.S. until the last couple of years (and even then, only by digital download. You want a hard copy, it’s gonna be an import.) That said, Siffre does share a writing credit on Eminem’s 1999 single “My Name Is…” due to the fact that it samples Siffre’s 1975 song “I Got The…”, a very sexy song with one hell of an awesome breakdown. At that time, Eminem was getting a lot of flak for his apparent homophobia. Ironically, it was the openly gay Siffre’s bassline and electric piano hook from that sexy, sexy mid-song breakdown that anchored Em’s first really big hit. Check it out:

    Labi Siffre “I Got The” (1975)

  • New Single! Keane “Silenced by the Night”

    New Single! Keane “Silenced by the Night”


    ''Silenced by the Night''

    My main problem with the British band Keane is the same problem that I have with photographs of autumn landscapes: the prettiness, the infernally unquestionable prettiness of it all. It’s so freaking easy to love what a Keane song sounds like that it almost feels like you’re missing something, like you’re falling for something that somehow isn’t quite real. Like you’ve ridden a fake elevator to the top of a skyscraper and the view from the “observation deck” window isn’t really the actual view, but a projection of the beautiful view you believed you were riding up the “elevator” to see.

    It seems so simple to love a Keane song, and yet my relationship status with the band has always been “It’s Complicated.”

    That said, in the eight years since the release of their very, very pretty album Hopes and Fears, we’ve seen some of their singles – especially the lovely “Somewhere Only We Know” – become virtual standards for their generation. That song didn’t make the U.S. Top 40. Nevertheless, it’s been performed by American Idol contestants, and it was featured in an episode of Glee last year. I hate to admit that it took seeing a very pretty Darren Criss very prettily serenading a teary-eyed Chris Colfer to convince me there’s more to “Somewhere Only We Know” (and, by extension, Keane) than just the pretty.

    Glee Cast/The Warblers – “Somewhere Only We Know” (2011)

    I think Keane themselves have entertained a similar, uncomfortable skepticism regarding their music’s prettiness and after their gloriously moody sophomore album Under the Iron Sea, they’ve done a little sonic wilderness-wandering, trying on some newer edgier sounds on their third album Perfect Symmetry and even collaborating with rapper K’Naan for a couple of tracks on a 2010 EP called Night Train, finding only intermittent success in the process.

    The band is getting set to release their fourth full-length album in May. The album’s called Strangeland, and if its first single is any indication, it seems Keane are making peace with the pretty. “Silenced by the Night” sounds exactly like something off of Hopes and Fears, with sun-dappled keyboard lines, and a soaring vocal by Thomas Chaplin on the chorus. Even thematically, it feels like a sequel to “Somewhere Only We Know,” with lyrics about a guy finding renewed strength and refuge in a relationship, “’cause baby, I’m not scared of this world when you’re here.”

  • American Idol Season 11 – Who Makes The Top 6?

    James Durbin
    Last night, I blogged the performances show with Heejun Han. Okay, I didn’t really, but he was pretty funny on Twitter last night, so I just pretended I did.

    I thought the show was pretty strong with really, only one weak point. And that weak point is little Hollie Cavanaugh. Here was my top and bottom two from last night:

    Top 2
    1. Jessica Sanchez
    2. Elise Testone
    2. Colton Dixon (sorry, I couldn’t decide)

    Bottom 2
    1. Hollie Cavanaugh
    2. Phillip Phillips

    The top 7 start the show performing Pink’s Raise Your Glass. It was kind of a disaster. Even my Droopy Elise wearing some sort terrible green hat that didn’t match the rest of her outfit couldn’t save it.

    Ryno brings up Hollie and Jessica to center stage. Hollie has to be shaking in her boots. He puts Hollie on the right side of the stage. And Jessica goes to the left side.

    James Durbin comes out sounding like Adam Lambert and looking like UFC fighter Josh Koscheck with a blown out blond look. Sadly, there was no Hulk Hogan this time.

    Elise and Phillip are in center stage. Jimmy thinks they both will be in the bottom three. Phillip joins Hollie and Elise joins Jessica. Ryno better not throw us a curveball here.

    Half of Jennifer Hudson is out singing Act Like A Woman, Think Like A Man. It’s kind of a boring performance for her, but Ne-Yo comes out and cleans up. That dude is just good. I’m still looking for Jennifer’s second half. With heels, she’s nearly a head taller than my man. I wonder if David Otunga is in the audience with his bow tie and coffee mug?

    And yes, Jennifer Hudson is skinny.

    Ryno brings up Colton and Joshua and Jimmy says he’s in on both. Joshua goes with Jessica and Elise. Colton goes with Hollie and Phillip. Skylar is the only one left. And she’s the first one who is safe. Ryno swerved us. He stuck Skylar with Colton, Phillip and Hollie, who are the other safe folks. My poor Elise. My poor, poor, Elise. This saddens me.

    Steven thinks they’ll use their save card this week. Um, Steven, you just ruined the suspense buddy. Joshua is safe. Jessica looks absolutely destroyed. Elise is safe! Holy cow. Jessica is so going to be saved.

    In maybe the best moment in Idol history, the judges come up and save Jessica before she gets into half of the first verse of her song and she just looks shocked. She has no idea what is going on. But the best part is that J. Lo shows us a side angle of that badonk and man, that lady will always have it.

    (Fast forward to about 1:57)

    You know what this means next week though. Two people are going home. And since America was drunk last night, we could see two really strong singers go home.

    Hollie doesn’t deserve to be on this show! Come on! Seacrest out!