This weeks single reviews – 18th March (part 2)

These single reviews were supplied by Philip Lickley – if you would like to contribute to All-Noise send your music reviews and opinions to [email protected].

Labrinth – ’Last Time’

[rating:2.5/5]
Buy Last Time

Definitely one of the best producers out at the moment as shown by his work with Tinie Tempah and his excellent ‘Earthquake’ collaboration, I had high hopes for this follow up from his upcoming album Electronic Earth. Sadly, gone are the inspired sections that have peppered his previous work and in comes a subscription to the latest AutoTune package. With a video that, incidentally, looks surprisingly cheap after the impressive CGI of his last promo with an alien that looks like a cheap-knock-off of the alien from Signs or the Eiffel 65 ‘Blue’ video, I am disappointed by this run of the mill single that, to its credit does throw in some great string riffs, but is mostly an over-produced mix of AutoTune and instrumentation that comes to a messy conclusion of clashing elements. A shame.

Nicki Minaj – ’Starships’

[rating:3/5]
Buy Starships [Explicit]

The wig-wearing wonder is back with this summer-y club track. Starting off with her trademark OTT rap it is a great follow-up to ‘Superbass’ but it does suffer from an identity crisis. Is it a Trinidad-enthused-rap, an expletive-filled dancefloor filler, or a smooth ballad? Or, a song that samples ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’? The answer is, all of these. Though it changes its style every thirty seconds or so as if she had three songs in her head and decided to squeeze them together into one hit, in a weird way it works even if it makes absolutely no sense as a song. Not her best hit but not a bad follow up either and the fingerprints of producer RedOne are all over it.

Will Young – ’Losing Myself’

[rating:4/5]
Buy Losing Myself

Having released some truly excellent singles after escaping the Pop Idol / X-Factor machine, ‘Losing Myself’ is no exception. Produced by Richard X, this third single from his album is another great single release with an arty video that’s definitely worth watching. Very much living in the 80s, it’s difficult to fault the track with its top synth backing track and Young’s distinctive emotive vocals. Very much like a modern Human League track this is definitely up there with this year’s best songs.

Paul Carrack – ’Good Feelin’ About It’

[rating:3.5/5
Buy Good Feelin’ About It

This is a sprightly solo track from the Mike + The Mechanics singer with retro stylings that plods along happily and mixes the best of Genesis / Phil Collins’ sound with orchestration to make this a chirpy track to while away a few minutes too. Unfortunately I can’t find the video for this anywhere so you’ll have to just make do with the audio: