Lopez Blogs

WILLIAM OF YOUNG - ALBUM PREVIEW:

Before I move onto a little album preview of the mighty William of Young's new opus, it would be remiss of me not to mention that he was on The Sunday Night Project last night, with Alan "It's Me, Alan" Carr and Justin Lee Collins. I adore William but his presenting skills weren't the best. Wooden is the best word for it. However, it was when William was generally chatting to Alan and Justin that he loosened up the most. He was lovely in clips where he pretended to be a big brother housemate being Madonna, then Michael Jackson and dealt with the gay gay gay questions from the audience with dignity and humour. I got a bit hoity toity today when someone at work said "ooo wasn't it brave that he was so camp. He's not usually so outwardly gay!" I'm not sure why that annoyed me - a few reviews in the papers etc, stated how wonderful it was that Will could be so gay on British tv. Yes it is wonderful, but it's also incredibly patronising that it should be singled out that Will can be gay if he wants. I'm not entirely sure how i want to phrase it, and i wasn't sure this morning so I left it thinking i was being a bit wankery. Do i still? Yes. I need to work out a way to express why i'm bugged! Anyway on a lighter note, here are some things I learnt on the Sunday Night Project...

• Will would not sleep with Simon Cowell if he (simon obviously not Will) were gay
• Although, Will would be a bit of a tramp and if he was poor would sleep with Simon!
• Ray fucking Quinn is now "doodie" in Grease in London. Poor London.
• Judi Dench has only ever been late once. Good for her. William can be late if he wants.
• William look go-oooo-od in a black suit. So few can pull off all black. I would pull it off William!
• William has colonic irrigation, and doesn't like it when the irrigator (?!) describes what is coming out. Me either. That was the worst bit.
• He would like to do a duet with Bjork because he believes that people with differing vocal styles produce the best duets. I thought he said Bjorn and meant Abba and got all excited for a minute...

I've already talked about the Glastonbury performances of Let it Go and Changes here, but as William criss crosses the country doing his rather lovely stately outdoor dates, a number of new songs are being previewed to his always adoring fans. First of all, can I just comment on how delicious Mr Young looks in casual checked shirt, even when pretending to be pregnant (as he is in the video above). Changes continues to delight me - such a lovely end of summer evening, jazzy vibe to it which is elegantly wrapped around William's voice. And in each live performance I've seen of it so far, William seems to be exuding joy at being back on stage singing his new (and old) songs. Just gorgeous. Although I have everything crossed for this being a massive hit, I suspect if it is or it isn't, it will go ahead and make the album a perennial seller right up to the Christmas sales. And this album will have legs if the previews of the other songs are anything to go by:

GRACE: Picture yourself in a smoky late night bar, with low level lighting, William in a tux with his bow tie hanging undone round his neck, and you are someway to picturing the atmosphere this songs creates. It starts off as a laid back languid track before crescendoing into a choir driven final chorus triumph that is probably the closest thing to Annie Lennox he has ever done. And that's a good thing. Trying not get immersed into swaying along with the final adlibs is futile. This song seduces rather than smacks you into submission and it's all the better for it.
HELP ME: Will does Joni! And one of the better Joni songs too. I'm not sure whether this is scheduled to be on the album, although he usually does one incredible out of this world cover, so maybe this will be it. There is the occassional inkling with William that he chooses cover versions on his tours (that don't make the album) to show how cool he is, and often they do. This one shows how his voice was THE VOICE that was right to win Pop Idol and has developed into one of the premiere male vocals in Britain. However, if there is one cover to make the album then it should be this one...
BLAME IT ON THE SUN: It is a bit of a shame that William messed up the lyrics to this Stevie Wonder classic, as it is p-e-r-f-e-c-t for his style and voice. It's an incredibly sad song - more to do with Stevie Wonders lyrics written at a poignant time in his life, and William manages to channel those lyrics into heartbreaking sadness. He's been singing this song for a while now so it probably won't be on the new album, but fingers crossed for a studio version on a b-side or during a live lounge.

Ultimately only one of these songs will probably end up on the album, but all three (and of course Let it Go and Changes) give a flavour of what promises to be the most mature William album to date. To finish off, let's have a butchers at my fave William song ever and a list of my other faves...(thanks to youtube Will1iam for providing such a wide array of fab videos)

Your Game
Switch It On
Ain't Such A Bad Place To Be
Leave Right Now
Love is A Matter of Distance
Love The One You're With
All Time Love
Who Am I
Hey Ya
Light My Fire

THE FEELING - JOIN WITH US



There are two very tenuous reasons why The Feeling are gate crashing my William of Young post today. One is that The Feeling were also on the Sunday Night Project a couple of weeks back (as musical guests - see video on the left). The second reason is that i secretly want Dan Gillespie Sells to date, fall in love and marry William Young. But really, I want to comment on the fourth single Join With us which finally has a video. In more wackiness in the mishandling of the promotion of their second album, the label seems to have forgotten about summery Turn It Up and started promoting the Toyota commercial friendly and long long time fizzypop fave Join With Us. The video sees the boys dressed as bankers/school boys lounging around in the sun then rain, then running through cornfields and casting off the shackles of the corporate tie. There is also a cutesy Enid Blyton/DoReMi moment where they are roaming around on bikes, probably looking for some ginger beer and strawberries with lashings of whipped cream. Finally for some reason they are rocking out at a nice fairground, and once again it's a bit bonkers but it's very Feeling and Richard looks lovely throughout. Lucky Sophie.