Ever noticed that the ‘Best of British’ is often just a bag of wank? Sausages filled with eyelids and snouts, sports stars who regularly bottle it, pan-faced birds with their tits out in mags like Nuts and skinny, floss-brained, smacky-looking male models in union jack boxer shorts. The phrase immediately fills me with trepidation, cynicism and doubt.
Last weekend’s Sunday Mirror decided to spunk out this age old slogan (in their dire ‘Celeb’ mag) in order to shift a few extra copies (probably to retarded BNP voters in Yorkshire) and glory in the crop of new female singers we have warbling around our sacred shores.
To be fair the list was mildly impressive to a point – Florence Welch, VV Brown and at a push Little Boots too (although the hype has done her no favours – wasn’t she supposed to be quirky and fresh as opposed to derivitive and bland?). But Pixie Lott? Yeah, there are probably plenty of tabloid readers who would like to make the glossy magazine pages stick together given half a chance – but the marketing is so transparent I’m at a loss. Hot pants. Loads of them. That’s it. And it’s working. Shame on you Britain! I would say, ‘Not in my name’ – but that’d probably be taking things a bit too far.
Two names relegated to just a small end blurb in the feature were the beautifully melancholic Laura Marling (you should have all heard of her by now) and the lesser known Marina & The Diamonds (although as some of you may know, there are no Diamonds, just Marina). I’ve not heard a lot but what I have heard sounds both commercial and quite good (rare bedfellows) – a little bit Joni Mitchell here and a little bit Kate Bush there (although that’s a bit crass and obvious – sorry). Keep an ear out for her – she’s miles better than La Roux and doesn’t seem keen on pretending the mid-80′s were ace either (they weren’t, they were shit).
None of them are as good as the ladies Foilface got to sing on ‘Pussyfoot’ and ‘Truckers’ though. Those girls have got some serious pipes on ‘em. Check out the tunes if you don’t believe me.
Conclusion – fuck the all sloganeering and hype and dig a little deeper…
