The name Siobhan Donaghey (first on left in pic) might not be immediately recognisable to many
people, but she was one-third of the original Sugababes line-up; the lanky redhead
with unorthodox good looks who was replaced by blonde babe Heidi Range when
Donaghey quit the band in late 2001.
Now, armed with a fine single Overrated, Siobhan launches her solo career.
Overrated is an edgy industrial pop track, showcasing Donaghey's qualities as
both writer and performer which characterised early Sugababes hits such as Run
For Cover. The striking video, meanwhile, is a world away from the FHM-friendly
image that her former colleagues have since appropriated.
STATUESQUE
The pop landscape may be dominated by an avalanche of airbrushed, gyrating
females with little or no substance to them or their music, but dig deeper and
you'll find the likes of the aforementioned Siobahn Donaghey and also Roisin
Murphy, Moloko's captivating frontwoman.
Murphy flirted with major popstardom between 1999 and 2000, when Moloko's
back-to-back Top 5 hits Sing It Back and The Time Is Now placed her firmly in the
spotlight. Since then, it's been fringe success with modest Top 30 singles
like Pure Pleasure Seeker, Indigo and the recent Familiar Feeling. It's no
exaggeration to claim they deserve better than these brief dalliances with the
chart, and Forever More might just reclaim some of the commercial ground lost
since The Time Is Now.
The second single from Statues, their superb current album, Forever More is
an insistent groove laced with urgent vocals, that builds to a mantra-like
climax. As anyone who saw Roisin's commanding, electrifying performance on Late
With Jools Holland last week knows, Moloko should be much bigger than they are.
GIMME SHELTER
The year is almost six months old, but Unrest - the solo set from Kings Of
Covenience vocalist Erlend Oye - remains one of the two or three most
outstanding releases of 2003. Oye, best-known as the voice on Royksopp's exquisite #21
hit Remind Me from last summer, has swiftly carved out his own niche in the
Nordic ambient-technopop market.
Unrest is the result of Oye's travels around Europe, collaborating with
musicians and producers from different locales on each track. Sheltered Life,
arguably the standout moment on Unrest, is issued as a single this week but in
reality will probably fare no better than its predecessor Sudden Rush, which fell
short of even the UK Top 75.
FUTURE SOUNDS
The best music on the horizon:
SUZANNE VEGA - RETROSPECTIVE:
Second compilation of Vega's work follows
1998's Tried And True, but aside from the inclusion of a trio of cuts from Songs
In Red & Gray (her only studio record in the interim) the two differ very
little.
The UK edition, out on July 7, has different artwork to the US equivalent (see
right) which was released there in April.
MORCHEEBA - PARTS OF THE PROCESS:
Morcheeba, having failed to replicate the sales levels or ubiquity of their
1998 album Big Calm with either Fragments Of Freedom (2000) or
last year's excellent Charango, now get the Best Of treatment on June
30th.
The obligatory new single to trail the collection, What's Your Name,
is out this week.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP