Mediocre singles will be the death of you
Written: Mar 05 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Life is good, A Place In The Sun is quite nice
Cons: 2 songs? Better singles could have been chosen
The Bottom Line: A good song, but perhaps not quite single material, backed with only 1 b-side makes this good for fans, but not much else.
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Life Will Be The Death Of Me Pt.1 (2 Tracks) [Sing... |
Released pre-Television-based media whoring, Life Will Be The Death Of Me would be ska-loving indie-kids The Ordinary Boys’ final release before lead-singer and guitarist Preston ventured into the Celebrity Big Brother house and carved out another career for himself as a tabloid irritation by marrying the show’s eventual winner and ‘Fake-celeb’ Chantelle…does anyone know her surname? With this said, it was also probably the last release a lot of fans accepted, as a lot of the band’s following, which wasn’t all that huge to begin with, shouted “Sell Out” at the CBB development.
Life, which I’ll refer to the lead song as, for the sake of brevity, wasn’t really one of the more obvious choices for a single from the group’s sophomore effort Brassbound as, while it was undeniably a good tune, the album had other, far more hook-laden, tracks that could possibly have captured the radio play the band have went on to earn, but just done so without the aid of awful reality TV shows. Starting with a drum beat from Simon Goldring before William Brown’s jaggy guitar kicks in, followed by a bouncy bassline from James Gregory and the slightly rougher guitar of Preston, the song quickly takes shape into what should be a typical Indie-rock song, but the random “oh-oh-ooohs” from Brown and/or Gregory and Preston’s lyrics, which challenge the older generation’s notion that we all have it too easy these days “don’t tell us that the World is lemon-scented/you say you had it much harder, tell me exactly how?“ yet maintaining a sense of fun, helped by the bouncy bassline, make this an example of an Indie-Rocker that gets my feet tapping, even if it isn’t a technical masterpiece.
For the single release, the band opted to do something interesting. Well ok, it’s hardly revolutionary, but the 3 versions of the single (2 CD’s and 1 7”) would each be backed by different cover versions of older songs. CD1, our subject today, is the weakest of the 3 releases in terms of quantity, boasting only 1 B-Side in comparison to CD2’s 2 B-Sides and the song’s video, yet at the same time contains possibly the strongest cover version.
Stevie Wonder’s A Place In The Sun is the subject of the band’s focus here, a song I’ve had force fed to me 3 nights a week at my part time job for months now, and while The Ordinary Boys’ version doesn’t actually differ too much from the original, the band employing some brass to keep with the original sound, it’s Preston’s vocal delivery that nails it for me and makes it worth note. I’m not sure if he was aiming for the tinge of irony in his crooning of the song’s lyrics, but it adds an air of humour to the song that helps elevate it beyond being ‘just another cover’ and into almost camp, British holiday-camp level nafness that actually makes it appealing.
However, with that said, it’s still with some reservations I recommend the single. I mean it’s still only 2 songs on the disc, with only the Wonder cover is exclusive, and even then I’m not sure it’s worth the effort tracking down an out-of-print CD single for it. Fans of the band, if there are actually any left these days, will probably take interest, but casual fans could pick up either of the band’s first 2 albums for less hassle and not more financial sting, so that’s where the smart money would go. Still, it’s far from the worst single release I’ve ever seen, it’s just also a long, long way off the best one.
Track Listing
1. Life Will Be The Death Of Me
2. A Place In The Sun
Related Reviews
The Ordinary Boys - Boys Will Be Boys [Single #1]
The Ordinary Boys - Boys Will Be Boys [Single #2]
The Ordinary Boys - Over The Counter Culture
The Ordinary Boys - Brassbound
Recommended:
Yes
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flash-hammer
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