Oh, Manchester, So Much To Answer For

Cor blimey! Coming on like "Crazy In Love"'s big sis, Javine's "Surrender" IS exactly what I'd feared coming down the pike over the weekend, a 2003 late-breaker (UK-only, no less!). With a chorus swiped from '71 Diana Ross, horny horns borrowed from Beyoncé, a galloping, thumpy beat that makes me delightfully antsy, and handclaps lifted from any record you could name, this might be a single-by-committee, but it's got Javine pushing it with everything she's got. And it's insistent, and that, ultimately, is what gets it over - and oy, does it ever! Ace, ace, ace.