With barely a dud track on it,
The English Riviera by
Metronomy looks set to be one of the albums of the year. While Joseph Mount doesn't have the most striking voice out there his sense of how to structure a quality pop song more than makes up for it; just one more reason why
Nicola Roberts, who hired him to work on her debut solo album, is/was the finest member of Girls Aloud.
Which brings us neatly to the subject of awkward pop stars. Nicola Roberts usually looked as if she'd wandered onto the set of a Girls Aloud video and—confused, possibly under duress—just got on with it as best she could. In case anyone noticed she shouldn't really be there. Luckily for her she was surrounded by more natural show-ponies so all was not lost. But Joseph Mount is front and centre of his videos and therein lies the problem. He's a complete stiff.
In fairness, his performance in the new video for 'The Bay' is a marked improvement on the bands' previous clip for '
The Look'; but only (one suspects) because tongue has been planted further in cheek by the director. Alas, it isn't enough. This isn't Mount's fault. Someone has decided he needs to be in his videos. Bad idea. Not putting
Temper Trap in their videos paved the way for some great directors to build magic around them. It played to their strengths; i.e. the music. This is the inverse of what's happening to Metronomy.
As a warning to others I present ten examples of what can go wrong when recording artists step out of the recording studio and in front of a camera.
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Metronomy - 'The Bay'
As if a stand-in was used because the real star didn't show up.
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Nicola Roberts - 'Dance To The Beat Of My Drum'
Great chorus, plenty of Diplo, lovely ass-choreography but ...she struggles to sell it. Still, it's possibly her best performance yet so there
is growth, it just may not bode well for a solo career. I do love watching her try though (the frozen smile at 48 seconds is classic Roberts).
--
Patrick Wolf - 'The City'
Some members of the press wonder why Patrick Wolf hasn't been taken to the bosom of the British public. I offer up his performance in this clip as a reason. Drinking game: Down a shot for every time he does that thing with his hair.
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Carl Lewis - 'Break It Up'
Yes, the Olympian. The famed long-jumper fell to earth with a thud when he launched a music career. Even putting him in a weights room, a natural fit for an athlete, was not enough to put him at ease. Not that the song helped.
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Pendulum - 'Watercolour'
Canny directors and marketing wizards work their way around the charisma free zone that is Rob Swire, by unleashing the heaviest camera filters known to man (also see'
Witchcraft' or almost any other Pendulum video). Would you notice if he wasn't there at all? No.
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(Continued next page)