Sunday, February 09, 2003

am really not impressed with wes, the new presenter of the uk top 40 on bbc radio 1. there's a new format, too: a rundown of the top 40 albums for the first half-hour, then numbers 40-21 run down speed-round style (new entries and selected others played in full, snippets of the others), and then the full top 20 for the last hour and a half or so. the biggest problem, really, is that he's 23, and sounds it. he's still got that annoying fanboy thing going on; I practically expected him to have an aneurysm whilst chatting up special guests liberty x. I think that the chart show is a big enough deal that radio 1 shouldn't be putting it in the hands of a new boy (and I still resent that they decided to stick with scott mills for the last month rather than continue using guest presenters - the world was robbed of the chance to hear john peel introducing the cheeky girls!). perhaps wes'll inprove with age, though I'm not holding my breath. I give him a year, tops.

liberty x, btw, aren't all that good, but make some decent pop records (though I hate "just a little"). "got to have your love" has a suitable rubbery bassline, and then there's their new single. "being nobody" is the result of their highly-touted collabo with bootlegger/mr. girls on top, richard x. it's no "freak like me," I'll tell you that. what's interesting about it is more the idea - combining the music from the human league's "being boiled" with the lyrics of "ain't nobody" by rufus & chaka khan - than the execution. it's fine and all, don't misunderstand me, it just somehow feels like it should be better, like, well, "freak like me." and unfortunately, liberty x are so fluffy and polished as to take some of the would-be-delightful edge off the record. great idea, but only half as successful in practice.

addendum: no, actually, "got to have your love" is more than its bassline. it's a fairly ace pop/r-and-b tune, not obnoxiously perky like most u.k. popfactory stuff, and the vocals are fine - nice boy/girl harmonies! yum.

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