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Pick at the pops
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Our weekly round-up of the weird and wonderful world of pop music...
It’s a brave new Top Of The Pops-less world. Who is stepping up to the plate? Who will be the biggest stars of what future historians will surely tag the post-atopofthepopalyptic era?
In the charts, Shakira baffles all sensible people by keeping Xtina off the top, but the real stories are further down. Everyone’s favourite motormouth Lily Allen has written off Madonna this week, claiming she’s done nothing worth a ‘wow’ since 1984. She obviously doesn’t remember the Like A Prayer video. Actually, she probably doesn’t.
The smart money’s on James Morrison, throaty young soul buck appearing in an advert near you. James is the latest in a long and distinguished line of pop stars - including, erm, Joss Stone and Rick Astley - who sound like they’re borrowing someone else’s voice. In James’ case, it’s Stevie Wonder’s. It’s not as if it was being put to good use anyway.
One man using nobody’s voice but his own is pomp rock behemoth, Meat Loaf. He may not be a new star, but he’s a big one and this week he launched the third album in his globe-crushing Bat Out Of Hell series. In typically understated fashion, he threw a party featuring plenty of meaty snacks, scattered skulls and hastily cobbled together cardboard devil horns. The music sticks to the formula but, in a world where Elvis’ teddy bear is mauled by its own guard dog and the Rolling Stones charge their own support band to watch them play, isn’t it nice to have something you can trust?
Matthew Horton
