SINGLE OF THE WEEK

SPACE INVADAS – Original

(Invada/Inertia)

Some ideas are just so good they can’t fail. Like Space Invadas, for example. A collaboration between soul singer Steve Spacek and Aus-producer extraordinaire Katalyst, the all-too-believable premise of Space Invadas is that aliens visiting Earth in the 1960s picked up a few soul 45s while they were down here. Inspired by what they heard, they went about writing their own soul music, but when they couldn’t get it to sound as much like Otis and Marvin as they wanted, they sent their songs back for Space Invadas to re-record. If that is the case, and I see no reason to doubt it, APRA better keep a close eye on those songwriting royalties. Based on this set up, it appears that the wacky duo should have no problems adhering to Original’s lyrical theme of always adding something new to what went before. Indeed, as he’s done many times, Katalyst gives the song the feeling of a groovy, crackling old Detroit soul record, while maintaining a modern sheen. Of course, even ‘original’ songs have their influences, and when Melbourne MC RuCL raps ‘So similar it sounds familiar’, it could be applied to this very song as well as the copycats he’s putting down. Those of you who haven’t had your memories wiped by aliens, cast your minds back to 2007 when one of the quirkiest singles of the year was the ridiculously crazy Kool Keith aka Dr Octagon’s Aliens. More than just the skyward abduction theme, Original shares that song’s same off-timed plonking twang-beat. Luckily, that song was fun and underappreciated enough that an ironically-titled tribute of sorts is only to be welcomed.

ABBE MAY & THE ROCKIN’ PNEUMONIA – Hawaiian Disease EP

(MGM)

The world sure is sometimes a loco place. Earlier this year we heard a Peaches single that didn’t need any censoring – none! – to be played on commercial radio, yet now we have an Abbe May song that’s got more sexual innuendo than a busload of private schoolboys watching a Carry On marathon on their way to a wanking convention. A singer-songwriter with an ear for growly blues, May and her strangely named band belt out a gusty, busty, thrusty, lusty number called Hawaiian Disease . How busty and thrusty is it? Try these gusty, lusty lyrics on for size... ‘My heart! It aches between my legs’ Ms May makes you blush, before continuing ‘Australian kiss my working parts / down under my damp A B C’s’. Yeah, it reads a bit obscure, but hear her essentially pant it, and there’s very little doubt as to what she has in mind. Can you guess? No, even racier! Eww, back a bit, not that racey. Her suggestion that she ‘heard you ride a mean moustache’ might put you closer to the mark. Giggle, I hope you didn’t faint – I told you it’s very rude! Luckily it’s also squarely fun and, much like the usual Peaches song, delivered by a deathly confident girl who knows what she wants, and don’t you dare stand in her road. Don’t blow your load too early though (not sure if you picked it up, but that was also a clever sexual innuendo!) because once Hawaiian Disease is done, there are still five more tracks to tap along to, including a cover of Tom Waits’ Jesus Gonna Be Here.

EMILY BARKER & THE RED CLAY HERO – Disappear

(Walking Horse/MGM)

Whether it’s more Celtic or country influenced it’s sometimes hard to tell, but Disappear is a stomping fiddle-focused tune that, regardless of heritage, sounds like it was made to be listened to by a congregation of like-minded clapping people surrounding a fire. Still, now that we have electricity and all, it’s probably best that you don’t, since singer-songwriter Emily Barker doesn’t use her outside voice much during this darkly intriguing tune. She’s a quiet achiever in every sense it seems, as this West Australian ex-pat has carved out an acclaimed career in the UK for her wispy, rolling countryside-inspired twang, consolidated by her second album from which Disappear is drawn, Despite The Snow. I wouldn’t think there’s quite enough in this track that would make anyone declare "Oh I simply MUST have that album!" but as a wave that Emily Barker & The Red Clay Hero (what is it with ridiculous band names this week?) may be a name to notice in the future, it’s effective enough.

MARIAH CAREY – Obsessed

(Universal)

Honey was the breaking point. It was 1998. That was the song with which Mariah Carey, first a shy pop/soul singer, then a girl-next-door pop diva, became a perpetually horny R&B slag barely able to conceal her breasts. It’s been a flimsy old ride with Mariah ever since, though it must be pointed out, a historically successful one. Incredibly, next year will mark 20 years since she debuted with the wistful, old-school Vision Of Love. Let that idea bounce around your head like … well, like she does. But in 2009, the mega-ballads and playful summer pop are a distant memory, and for the entire second half of her career, she’s been slapping down great steaming piles of Usher-style R&B like Obsessed. And when it’s mediocre urban beats and attention, attention, attention you thrive on, what could be a better match than a song ragging on the music world’s biggest name, Eminem? Essentially a response to his tabloid claims that he and she were together, she’s saying (in what feels like a trivial gossip-mag publicity stunt), ‘Nuh-uh, we were never on, you think you all dat, but you ain’t all dat, why so obsessed wit me, you be on drugs, you be poppin hood, cos even if you the last man on earth you still couldn’t get this’. A lot of that is actual lyrics, by the way. Add to the fact that the girl whose one real claim to superstardom was her billion octave warble is now using a so-hot-right-now autotuner, and you get such a grey-coloured, flaccid slice of dull that if you took away the boobcentric cover, even current day Mariah fans would be scratching their numbskulls as to why they bought it.

SIMON TOPPER