The Singles Jukebox

FIVE-POST MONDAY! And what a way to kick it off…

[Video][Website]
[5.43]

Alfred Soto: Welcome to the future, as envisioned by the radio broadcast sampled in Starship’s “We Built This City.”
[0]

Michaelangelo Matos: Last year this character sampled Brahms, and now he samples INXS. That’s progress. So is the fact that he’s grokked the post-“Bonkers” formula more shamelessly than anyone else I’ve heard (not all of them, I admit). Karaoke pop as stupid-fun (though clearly not as historically important) as Puff & Biggie ’97.
[8]

Martin Skidmore: The INXS sample is overly familiar, even with basic beats added, so the success or failure of this probably rests on the rapping. Fortunately Professor Green’s grime flow is nimble and confident, and he has the same tonal quality that always makes me smile in Dizzee. I’m bored with the riff, so it doesn’t quite cut it with me, but I quite like him.
[6]

Matt Cibula: Tried to dismiss this but I couldn’t, because the hook is SO DAMN TIGHT and because he retains a bit of old-school anti-flow (think Gregg Nice or Rob Base).
[7]

Chuck Eddy: INXS didn’t invent this rhythm, by the way; as far as I’ve been able to figure over the years, either the Grateful Dead (“Shakedown Street”) or Warren Zevon (“Nighttime In The Switching Yard”) did — and both of them got more funk out of it, too. Still an excellent groove, though. And these blokes preen less than Michael Hutchence did.
[7]

Edward Okulicz: Damned if the INXS riff isn’t still an absolute monster, but this has been done before (and not too well then either). If it had been someone with charisma and presence and something other than just whinging, and if the words were going on about pains in their left tit it might have been a bit more fun. As it is, this is perhaps one step above karaokeing your own words over the top of a backing track. It adds something new quantitatively, but not qualitatively.
[4]

Anthony Easton: Charming, and the whole “I am a Pimp” thing is delightfully self-loathing.
[6]