Lopez Blogs

Ugh. I'm tired. It's exhausting preparing for a holiday (yes my life is so hard)... i've had to do double the work this week to make sure everything's done before I leave. So now I'm sitting down in my gap slouch-around-the-house PJs and my "electric youth lives" t-shirt, and finding that two albums I didn't really think I would like have turned out to be - well certainly not on the cutting edge of pop, but - rather enjoyable actually. In a relax in your trampy clothes, eat weetabix and light some ylang ylang candles sort of way...

Ah, The Don. I do like Jason Donovan. I think he had a fine solo career until it all imploded thanks to suing The Face magazine. His S/A/W albums were jolly bundles of fun, and even stuff like RSVP, Mission of Love and As Time Goes By were super good listens. So if he was going to come back with an album of covers, as he has with Let It Be Me, part of me wished that he had done some nice modern day interpretations of his greatest hits. However, an album of classics from the 50s and 60s isn't quite as awful as it might sound. For starters, he DOES tackle two of his old hits - Sealed With A Kiss and Rhythm of the Rain are both included. Both have been re-recorded. SWAK is a more sparse arrangement than the 1989 original version he did and it is a more mature reading of the tune. ROTR removes the perkiness from his 1990 version and gives a very minor hint of gravitas. Other than that the differences are minimal, but it's nice to hear him still singing these songs. And really if you already know those songs in either versions, you pretty much know what you are getting here - straightforward versions of some great pop tunes that have stood the test of time. The title track of the album is actually quite a swoony version of the tune, and would have been a much better tune to promote the album than the Cliff Richard-esque Dreamboats and Petticoats. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes turns out to be lovely partially through Jason's very earnest vocal, and the lovely cello permeating through the melody to give a nice contrasting tune. DreamLover reminds me of his duet with Same Difference on last years X Factor - close your eyes while listening and you are back in a 50s diner with Sean (in their latest images for the album cover) serving you a root beer float, while Sarah bops by the jukebox. Lonesome Town is a sweet sorrowful ballad that wouldn't sound out of place in a Doris Day flick, and the album finishes with All The Words We Don't Say, which is one of my dad's favourite songs of all time. It's not the most groundbreaking album in the world, it's not going to set the charts alight (it currently sits at #28) but if you are feeling nostalgic and just want some music that won't challenge you, then you could do a lot worse than this...

Ah The Barrow! I've surprisingly never really been a big fan of his, though I do like him in Doctor Who. I've yet to really get into Torchwood though i suspect I will at some point in time if DanUK tells me it's worthwhile :P Anyway, he has a new album of tunes out called Music Music Music. It's mainly theatrical cover versions, except for the lead off single penned by the can-he-do-anything-wrong-at-the-moment mighty Gary Barlow. Titled What About Us it's possibly the best GB penned tune not sung by the man himself since Duncan warbled out Guilty as part of Blue. It suits John's voice perfectly, and then there's the quite sad video of two couples trying to make it through the hard times :( Frankly if I was in bed with any of the dudes in the video, possibly including John, I wouldn't just be lying there all passive and moody. But I digress... The highlights of the album are definitely his interpretations of the sixties tunes like the always glorious Can't Take My Eyes Of You (always brillo to singalong drunk to) and effortlessly gorgeous You Don't Have To Say You Love Me. I'm usually quite protective of Dusty but John does a decent job of imbuing the song with the right amount of pleading but keeping the grace and dignity the song needs to keep it from being to begging. Of course the songs are given theatrical production - John's voice works best with that sort of play it to the back of house values. I'm less fond of his renderings of Right Here Now, Uptown Girl and From A Distance but then there are more than enough goodies to make up for it. His versions of Sarah McLachlan's Angel and Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now are both restrained and elegant. And there is a rousing round of I Am What I Am which starts off tentatively (as the song should) and then gets more perky as the confidence grows until the euphoric conclusion. The best track on here though is the boy on boy duet of I Know Him So Well. Sung absolutely perfectly, it's one of the most lovely versions of the song I've heard in a long long time and the harmony in the second verse ("Looking back i could've played this some other way...") is crystal clear. So all in all then a pretty decent album from the ubiquitous Mr B. Bravo, etc.

Same Difference. Tomorrow.