COMPLETELY ME

Here's some pretty damn compelling acoustic versions of songs from Frankmusik's rather disappointing debut, Complete Me. In Step and Better Off As Two were always the best songs on there, and these alternate versions are just as good. You can find both, and the rest of the album in acoustic format on the digital-only release rather imaginatively named; Completely Me.

In Step - Frankmusik
Better Off As Two - Frankmusik

LIGHTS // ELLIE GOULDING

To be honest, I saw Lights coming a mile away. It's too much for the record label suits to let a female artist with girl next door looks to be anything other than pop. There's no money in it otherwise, and nobody wants that. I also understand how very typical it is for the people who got her to where she is (her original fans) suddenly reject her as soon as she makes it. But that's what's going to happen, people are fickle and the weight of hype is suffocating for all but a select few.

While Ellie Goulding had this charming Electro/Indie/Pop vibe when we first heard her, it's a different girl we're listening to on Lights. Perhaps i'm being a tad melodramatic, but the whole thing feels over-produced and typical. From the album artwork, which will turn everyone but the most stalwart Beyonce fans away in disgust, to the cutesy sentimentality and sappy lyrical work in most of the tracks, it all reeks of a budding young artist steered towards the black hole of despair that is the Top 40 charts by the powers that be. It was obvious with Frankmusik's debut, Complete Me, and it's obvious here.

However like everything, Lights is not without its merits. The opener, Guns And Horses, is exactly what I was hoping for from Goulding with this album. It's catchy as hell but still retains that X-Factor that discerns credible songwriting from manufactured pop. Tracks previously heard and loved by many such as Starry Eyed and Under The Sheets are still there, but little vocal flourishes and production highlights make them sound far more pop than ever before, especially in the former. Your Biggest Mistake is another song that gives us but a glimpse of what could have been, it's a truly compelling track, and the vocal effects utilised remind me once again of Frankmusik, but here it's a great thing, rather than a disappointing similarity.

Which makes me wonder about the tracks that didn't make it on the album. You get a sneaking suspicion throughout the album that this is not her best work, just the stuff deemed least risky by her label.

All of this said, you could do far worse than buy Lights. In a world where people like Lady Gaga can become famous and respected, Ellie Goulding is a breath of fresh air. I sincerely hope this album and her inevitable success doesn't pigeon-hole her for the rest of her career.

5/10

WEBSITE

AND YOU LOOKED SO RIGHT, IN THAT RED DRESS.

I've convinced myself now that Intimacy Remixed was a cruel ploy by enemies of Bloc Party to damage their untarnished streak of greatness, It was truly awful.

More realistically though, I'd like to think that perhaps Bloc Party didn't have much say in the matter, as the remixes, and remixers; chosen to submit work to the album basically made a mess of the whole thing, which I doubt Kele Okereke would be too keen on if given a say in the matter. The opportunity for fans to remix three or their songs was similarly squandered, with a single digit number worth of remixes worth even mentioning.

Finally though I've found some not necessarily new remixes from Intimacy that have genuinely impressed me.

The mysterious and relatively unknown Adam Jeffery has remixed Letter To My Son under his misleading moniker; Twins, and it's a really good rework. It reminds me of the Silent Alarm remixes: the general trend being that the remixers acknowledged and preserved the heart and soul of the song, only adjusting the mood and atmosphere to create something compelling. Twins has done the same thing here, cut and pasted some vocals, added an eerie instrumental backdrop and amplified the sense of sadness and regret that took center stage in the original. It's remixes like this that should have been on the reinvented iteration of Intimacy.

Secondly, I've tracked down the Frankmusik remix of Talons, which you'd be forgiven in thinking had nothing to do with Frankmusik at all from the sounds of it. But the Electro-Pop wizard's trademark vocal splicing and jittery effects are here and just as effective as always. He's essentially doubled the length of the song, pulling somewhat of a Fred Falke; and like Fred Falke, he's kept it interesting the whole way through.

p.s. Kele recently shaved off the dreads and stacked on, like, 400 pounds of muscle; likely in a bid to intimidate racist punk legends.

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Letter To My Son (Twins Remix) - Bloc Party
Talons (Frankmusik Remix) - Bloc Party