Kano ft. Michelle Breeze - 'Upside'
It's always a good sign when you resent having to turn a song off in order to write about how brilliant it is.
Frankly there's a whole ocean of enjoyment still to be wrung out of 'Upside' and I'm keen to get started. So I'm going to have to keep this brief. C'mon, read faster!
Let's just assume I've said something sharp and daft here about the grammar in the chorus, and how leaving the line "you don't know which way is upside" unfinished until the final chorus is just begging all the would-be Lynne Trusses on any dancefloor to shout "DOWN!" every time that line comes around.
And let's assume I'd have then gone on to conjure up some scenario at the annual Christmas party of the 'Grammar Is One National Greatness Mankind Always Destroys' club (blah blah acronym blah), where they only play songs which are grammatically correct - with the result that it's a really, really short Christmas party.
Haha...yes...a crazy scenario indeed...HURRY UP!
(. Boxing for him. Bedroom for her.)
And then here's where we get a chance to talk about the music. About how rude and lumpy the brassy background sounds after what feels like YEARS of saturated synths and cold, cold dance-hop. But, even though Mark Ronson has forsake the funk for, well, the other funk, it's songs like this that prove why bringing trumpets back was such a good idea in the first place.
Speaking of cold...Michelle Breeze's drop-choruses...those gorgeous, sobbing choruses, act like an ice-bath next to the sweaty heat of the verses. She reclines on a bed of frozen strings, far into an icy ocean, calling out for rescue and quietly falling apart.
Meanwhile Kano is all brutal strength and frustration. He's clearly as keyed up as she is, but rails against it, punchily. He's the angry man at the bus stop who hasn't got time to give you the time because can't believe how late he already is, and how much work he's going to have to do to catch up. Is this what he pays his taxes for? What is the world coming to?
Although he does express it in a much cooler way than I have, with that densely-structured flow of his.
Whacking the two extremes into one song is a brilliant, brilliant thing, because it makes the sad bits sadder and the funky bits funkier. And they're already as sad and as funky as you'd normally need. It's called juxtaposition and it's been done perfectly.
NOW, have you got all the information you need? I could tell you Michelle's in a band called Why Why Peaches or that 'Upside' was produced by Craigie Dodds, but I really need to get on, so maybe you could just find these things out for yourself for once, yeah?
OK, thank you, much obliged. Gotta go!
Download: 23rd August
´óÏó´«Ã½ Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
"The sad thing is that the cats in the UK have been consistently pushing the envelope for the past two decades, creating some of the most imaginative sounds most US rap fans would kill over."
"The bars are lacking and it just doesnt do it for me."
"Really love Kano's lyrical flow."
Comment number 1.
At 24th Aug 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:5 star songs used to be a rarity but now a 5 star song comes along almost every week.
I think ratings need to be out of ten or that you can have 'half-stars'
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Comment number 2.
At 24th Aug 2010, spirit wrote:Ah here is the man who said that The Writer by Ellie Goulding was going to number 1 . Lol I have missed you . X
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Comment number 3.
At 24th Aug 2010, Haducon2 wrote:Actually Bendter, I don't think there's been a lot of 5-star songs recently. There HAS been a lot of 4 star ones however...
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Comment number 4.
At 24th Aug 2010, spirit wrote:But come on if this song is 5 star and Em and Ri only get 4 for the outstanding Love The Way You Lie , which to any experienced , seasoned music lover is better on many levels than this song , then something is seriously amiss .
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Comment number 5.
At 24th Aug 2010, Haducon2 wrote:I didn't say it was justified, just that there hasn't been a lot of five star songs recently.
And I do agree with your opinion spirit :)
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Comment number 6.
At 24th Aug 2010, Haducon2 wrote:And secondly, you don't have to be an "experienced, seasoned music lover" to know good music when you hear it AND the opinion of an "experienced, seasoned music lover" isn't always correct. :)
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Comment number 7.
At 25th Aug 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:Spirit, I admit that was a terrible, terrible prediction.
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Comment number 8.
At 25th Aug 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:OK, 5 star songs in August (as rated by Fraser)
Kano ft. Michelle Branch - 'Upside'
Everything Everything - 'MY KZ UR BF'
DJ Fresh - 'Gold Dust'
Three in 25 days! 5 star songs used to be a rarity, the sort of songs that you couldn't stop listening to.
This is why songs need to be rated out of 10.
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Comment number 9.
At 25th Aug 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:OK, 5 star songs in August (as rated by Fraser)
Kano ft. Michelle Branch - 'Upside'
Everything Everything - 'MY KZ UR BF'
DJ Fresh - 'Gold Dust'
Three in 25 days! 5 star songs are the sort of songs that you couldn't stop listening to.
This is why songs need to be rated out of 10.
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Comment number 10.
At 25th Aug 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:OK, 5 star songs in August (as rated by Fraser)
Kano ft. Michelle Branch - 'Upside'
Everything Everything - 'MY KZ UR BF'
DJ Fresh - 'Gold Dust'
Three in 25 days! 5 star songs are the sort of songs that you couldn't stop listening to.
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Comment number 11.
At 25th Aug 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:OK in August (as rated by Fraser)
Kano ft. Michelle Branch - 'Upside'
Everything Everything - 'MY KZ UR BF'
DJ Fresh - 'Gold Dust'
Three in 25 days! 5 star songs are the sort of songs that you couldn't stop listening to.
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Comment number 12.
At 25th Aug 2010, SilverArcher wrote:@6 VERY TRUE. And this song is average, I find the female vocalist vaguely irritating.
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Comment number 13.
At 25th Aug 2010, harrythedog10 wrote:@ 8,9,10,11
Woah quadruple posting that takes skill!
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Comment number 14.
At 25th Aug 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:Wow.
I kept getting errors when I posted so I clicked it again a few times.
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Comment number 15.
At 25th Aug 2010, OddOne wrote:It's funny you should mention that Bendter because whenever I seem to post after you, my post comes up as exactly what you said, with your username and your post number aswell.. then I refresh the page an normality is restored..
Just a little food for thought, really.
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Comment number 16.
At 25th Aug 2010, OddOne wrote:Scratch that, it's always the first poster on the Blog that gets re-entered where my comment should be until I refresh.
Odd much?
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Comment number 17.
At 25th Aug 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:what browser do you use?
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Comment number 18.
At 25th Aug 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:wow, I was about to post a response to that, Oddone, when what you said just happened to me.
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Comment number 19.
At 25th Aug 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:And now I'm getting something saying 'You said that in comment 1'
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Comment number 20.
At 25th Aug 2010, kutox wrote:I've been getting the same thing today too. Strange
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Comment number 21.
At 28th Aug 2010, jlrake wrote:20 comments in, and I'm the first one to note that the gal singing should've been ID'ed as Michelle Breeze, not folkie pop/poippy country singer Michelle Branch?! Whatever, people, I just thought SOMEONE should make the correction.
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Comment number 22.
At 28th Aug 2010, spirit wrote:To be honest , J , we are probably used to all the mistakes , they seem to come regularly at the moment . See todays for a real corker ! Half a review anyone ? We needed a perceptive soul like yours to spot this one . Lol I think a stiff breeze has knocked Fraser from the branches ,off the top of the review tree .
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Comment number 23.
At 28th Aug 2010, Haducon2 wrote:Poor Fraser, he's being questioned left right and center.
You're just lucky he still updates spirit! If I were him I would have left you lot reviewless to go and cry in a corner a long time ago.
:)
And by the way, since I've mentioned deperting reviewers, whatever happened to vicki? I don't think I've read anything about her leaving...
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Comment number 24.
At 28th Aug 2010, Haducon2 wrote:UGGH! *fumes*
*departing
...
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Comment number 25.
At 28th Aug 2010, SamuraisShadow wrote:It's not a hard job, is it?
Fraser doesn't really review things well, does he?
Jedward: 5 stars
JLS: 5 stars
Eminem and Rihanna: 4 stars
Yeah...
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Comment number 26.
At 29th Aug 2010, Haducon2 wrote:Well if you don't like the reviews, why do you bother making an account and posting on here then? Yes his reviews aren't the best but have you got to complain on every thread about them? Geez, lighten up.
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Comment number 27.
At 29th Aug 2010, spirit wrote:I think everyone is being light Connie . ;) It is good to find humour in life . It is only light hearted banter . X
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Comment number 28.
At 31st Aug 2010, spirit wrote:I see that Fraser has finally corrected his mistake on this review now . It now reads Michelle Breeze and NOT Michelle Branch ! He has twigged his error at last .
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