Lopez Blogs

THE SATURDAYS - JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH:

The meteoric rise of The Saturdays as England's current pop darlings has been quite the joy to watch. While If This Is Love left me ever so slightly cold at first, I now (perhaps criminally) find myself reaching for Up over The Loving Kind on a regular basis, and Issues is an incredibly pretty ballad that although formulaic manages to transform into something beautiful. So I was excited to hear they were covering one of my fave early Depeche Mode tracks for Comic Relief - and really it does exactly what it says on the tin. It's not exactly a million miles away from the original DM version, and wisely keeps the well known synth riff in place. It's a fun version of the tune that actually soars when the girls let their harmonies loose - check out 2m17; those ten seconds had they been replicated throughout the song would have raised this from ace pop fun to great cover version. And oh my! The video - it's easy to guess why NO money has been spent on it, as it's for charidee, but those stereotypical women in the kitchen poses are a bit grating after a while. So my advice - don't watch the vid too much and enjoy this slice of nostalgic pop yummy. Now, bring on Enjoy The Silence RBW!!
LINK: Aaron's ace review of Chasing Lights, no need for me to write one now :P

WILL YOUNG - LET IT GO:

Well never let it be said that William of the Young does not throw himself fully into his videos - whether it be wearing tight speedos or doing some fancy dressage, he knows how to make a visual impact. The title track of his current album sees him getting kicked out of (one assumes) a costume party where at first I thought he had gone as a raccoon, but no he actually is a superhero. This leads to some great shots of William in superhero poses, his cape flying in the breeze. Some of these are purposefully posed, and some weaved into the character William is playing - for example, when he pulls his cape around him to shield him from the cold is an iconic superhero/villain image. There is also a beautiful scene where a previously petulant William walks past a store window and stares at a mannequin, before finally realising that he does indeed have to let his anger/hurt/resentment go and dances around with the mannequin, getting whatever version of closure he needs. It's a lovely 3 minutes+ of video to go with a stand out track from his album. I was advocating I Won't Give Up as a single and i'm hoping that will still happen, but this promo has reignited my adoration for this stark, powerful statement of love and loss. Hopefully the British public will feel the same.
LINK: XO and DanUSA's thoughts on the track when it first came out
LINK: William's thoughts on his upcoming greatest hits and future albums
LINK: My "Let It Go" album review

Coming tomorrow - Erasureish.