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 SINGLE OF THE WEEK
JILL SCOTT – Hate On Me (Inertia) Apart from ex-Government minister Tony Abbott, the rest of us have pretty much accepted that racial generalisations aren’t that ace. We acknowledge that not all crimes in America’s Deep South throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s were committed by Reuben Carter. The roads in Japan are not congested with a perpetually growing pile of wrecks due to that country’s poor driving abilities. And Nick Giannopoulos is far from funny. However, there is the occasional racial stereotype that we guiltily let sneak under our conscience because, let’s face it, some of them still make us chuckle. The loud, righteous indignation of African-American women’s self-appraised worth is one them. If, in some bizarre cross-cultural polygamous hypothetical, you had to choose one racial stereotype to break up with, it wouldn’t be the one who screams at you loudest. Jill Scott is an African-American woman. She’s an R&B singer. She’s smart, beautiful and empowered to buggery and back. And in the same way Jill Scott’s songs aren’t soggy, skanky or simple-minded like much of America’s current R&B output, nor is Jill Scott the clichéd African-American woman to go through a break up with. If this ‘70s-style blaxploitation-soul sounding tune is any indication, she’s the one who did the dumping and is reasonably prepared to cope with any nasty relationship kickback. More Australians might recognise Scott’s smooth but biting throat from Lupe Fiasco’s Daydreaming than anywhere else, but if the rest of her third album is in Hate On Me’s league, that’s about to change.  SUGAR ARMY – Jigsaw
(Good Cop Bad Cop / Inertia) If there’s one single this week that sounds like a young kinda post-punk band playing a song off their EP while in an exciting box-crashing, fruit-stall-smashing back street car chase from the fuzz, Sugar Army’s Jigsaw is most likely it. From the group’s debut Where Do You Hide Your Toys EP, Jigsaw is a bit thumping surf rock, a bit avant-pop, a bit riff-laden heavy rock and a bit outlaw country, at least thematically. Those bits fit together to form a pretty nifty and urgent whole of indie rock that recalls Flamingo Crash and The Cops’ first album. However, while this fast mash of styles provides a fantastic burst of energy, careening around blind corners and raising pulse levels of anyone watching, it’s also hard to pin down and take in a decent appraisal of Jigsaw. Car chases are short-term hits of adrenaline, exciting as buggery, but as any 18 year old Gold Coast hoon will tell you, the idea is to get away without leaving any lingering evidence of your identity, and given repeated listens, it’s apparent that Sugar Army do that just a little too well here.  ADELE – Chasing Pavements
(Remote Control) Adele, I’ve read, is the latest young female from London to write songs for young people. One of her songs mentions pavements, presumably because she’s so urban. You can probably get her music in the internets. One guess as to who she’s being compared to. Yep, according to press releases and some media, Adele is the new Lily Allen. Apologies to Kate Nash, but it looks to be a legit enough claim too. First of all, they’re from the same city. Snap. They’re around the same age, definitely the same gender, and finally they both probably have some of the same CDs in their collection. Twins, or what? Of course, this line of musical comparability reasoning would also conclude that Jack White was the new Eminem, so we can conclude that within this equation of similarity there should really be the opportunity to compare the sound of each artist’s music. Had this been taken into account, there’s no way in buggery that Adele and Lily Allen would have been compared. Adele’s soulful ballad is more Dido than Lily, calmly pleasant, reflective and slightly morose, but all with an attitude of being a quiet girl getting ready to take on what the city might peg at her. If string-laden singer-songwriting is what you’re in the mood for, Chasing Pavements is quite a decent contender. Just don’t be expecting any pottymouth guttertalk.  KILLA KELA – Secrets
(Shock) Only weeks ago, latest UK X Factor winner Leona Lewis was the first British talent contestant to make any real impact on us in Australia, with a #1 single and album. Now it looks like she’s opened the floodgates, because Killa Kela is releasing his first single, Secrets. Name doesn’t ring a bell? Well, he wasn’t an X Factor runner-up. No, not an Idol either. And it will be at least another couple of months until he’s forgotten enough to feature on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Outta Here! Here’s a clue – Brwrwrwrwrwrwt! And another one – Killa’s talent contest win wasn’t televised, but if Simon Cowell came up with another formulaic attempt to humiliate creative types, Killa would have won So You Think You Can Beatbox. He’s the UK Beatboxing champ! Yes, that Killa Kela! Avoiding the Michael Winslow/Police Academy route of making novelty mouthnoises, Killa takes more of our own Joel Turner’s approach, creating some hip hop-tinged breaks using little else but his mouth, laying down some lyrics over the top, and ending up with something incredibly average. I understand not wanting to be seen as an inane mouth clown, the little fellow who can do funny noises until we’re sick to buggery of them. But by the same token, if you just make noises that sound enough like Daniel Bedingfield singing over a drum machine that they might as well be, your gift is largely redundant anyways. How about for the follow up, Killa, you just make some cool siren noises in the background? Maybe a helicopter to deliver you to the studio at the start! Or halfway through there’s a chainsaw going outside (run-un-un-un-un) that gets so annoying you have to slam the window (slam!) and then the glass breaks (tinkle tinkle tinkle) and the cat runs away (meeeeeooww!). Then you can continue your quest to sound just like Craig David, I promise.
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