Single Reviews 04/12/06

Good Lord! When did frickin’ December happen? In the coming weeks, we’ll be unveiling the definitive Sloppy Dog highlights and lowlights of 2006. And much as we’d like to send a Chrimbo card to all our lovely readers, unfortunately we don’t have either of your addresses. In the meantime, enjoy this week’s Single Reviews...

Paolo Nutini’s Rewind is a track that pays testament to his gargantuan success, which has probably come about due to the barren lack of wistful young singer/songwriters lately. Let’s hope 2007 brings more of those. He’s certainly an all-round box ticker, straddling the usually-distant fields of credible and marketable, but from where we’re sat, it’s all a bit... meh.

One of the most inventive tracks of the year comes courtesy of Jamelia. While it could be argued Beware of the Dog merely rehashes the concept behind Rihanna’s SOS, the end result is far superior. A meaty, excitable pop marvel with characteristic balls, Beware of the Dog is our Single of the Week. And, as we’re fervent supporters of any form of Javine-baiting, Jamelia herself has gone up in our estimations too. Slag, indeed.

Another track built upon the foundations of a classic is Land of a Thousand Words by the Scissor Sisters, essentially a minor deviation from 2004 single Mary. Still, it’s a light, faraway lilt to remedy the hyperactivity of I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’. In a vaguely similar semi-theft of an existing number, Jay Z’s tired, heffalumping Show Me What You Got sounds uncannily like the original theme tune of Sunset Beach. If only it were an actual sample, we could count on the curse of the Rosario jewels or a handy tidal wave to erase the monotonous troll from the airwaves once and for all.

In presenting I Can’t Come Down to the world, Embrace have somehow managed the near-impossible feat of releasing the four weakest tracks from This New Day. Either someone in the record company is attempting some form of assassination-by-chart-positions, or the band haven’t even heard their own bloody album. Still, feeble by Embrace standards is grand by anyone else’s, thus we can’t wag the finger of disapproval too hard.