A good song is a good song, even if it's sung by Katy Perry.

I'll be honest right from the start. I've never been a fan of Katy Perry. Her career was built on a foundation of weak controversy and titillation of underage boys. The record label of a lady whose first two singles were called Ur So Gay and I Kissed A Girl obviously weren't planning on her wonderful vocal skills to make her breakthrough. Then this happened...



It's taken me a long time to admit this, but I bloody love Firework. After a slow start, from 48 seconds in, this is one of the catchiest, best written pop songs of the last few years. The strings are captivating, the beat is basic and non-intrusive, and after half a listen, you'll be humming it for days. Everything a pop song should be. Yet, can you imagine if this had been sung by, for example, Kelly Clarkson?



My Life Would Suck Without You is a song in a similar vein to Firework, but listen to them one after the other, and it is blatant just how much of a stronger singer Ms. Clarkson is than Ms. Perry. That chorus on Firework is yelling out for someone who doesn't need to sound like a very large kidney stone is being forced through a very small hole that kidney stones shouldn't appear from. A nose, for example. But that doesn't mean I would choose not to listen to Firework. I don't choose not to listen to Neil Young because his voice isn't as strong as some of his contemporaries.

Ultimately, a voice is far from the most important thing in music. As much as a good voice is nice, the strength of the songwriting underneath is what is going to make you stand to attention whenever it passes your ears. Recently, my girlfriend's parents took us to the 02 to see James Taylor with them. It was a fun evening, and he has an interesting, unique voice, yet during his between song banter, he mentioned that he has written 10 songs 20 times each, or something along those lines and nothing could be more true. None of his songs ever really stick. The only song he performed that evening I could hum on the tube on the way home was You've Got A Friend. And that was written by Carole King. And that was only after a concious effort not to sing the similarly titled ditty from Toy Story.

If I've not convinced you yet, just go ahead and think about Losing My Religion. You know it. One of R.E.M.'s biggest hits. Yes, that one. Now have a listen to Graveworm's version.



Now, even without Michael Stipe's famous vocals, replaced by a man in desperate need of a lemsip, the core of the song is still intact, recogniseable and pretty damn perfect. When a song your gran can hum can transcend genre and be performed by a band the masses of Bloodstock would appreciate and still instantly sound faithful to both the original, and the band's sound, that just goes to show I was right to finally admit how much I enjoy Firework. It doesn't mean I'm instantly Katy Perry's biggest fan. Just that I have a lot of respect for the faceless songwriters who wrote it and thank them for getting the tune out there (even if that does include Mrs Brand herself).

Amazing Spiderman Tralier.

The 6 of you who read this blog in it's old format may remember that I blogged about a reboot of Spiderman, and pretty much called it a bad idea. Anyway, the trailer for that new version has been revealed, and it looks pretty sweet so far. I'm still unconvinced a new Spiderman is needed (it's only a decade, give or take since the Sam Raimi version first hit our screens), but the human element the hiring Marc Webb as director promised does seem to be showing through in the majority of the trailer, yet the first person parkour themed action sequences at the end don't seem too much at odds with it.



Do you agree, or do you think it looks utter tosh?

Stunning new Mogwai track- Get To France

I aim to post once a day, so if it doesn't look like it'll be anything longer, then it'll simply be a link to a track I'm enjoying at the moment, or somesuch. First of these then, is the new Mogwai track "Get To France". Post-Rock often sounds filmic, by virtue of it's instrumental nature, yet it's very rare that a piece of music evokes a film in which a French lady is telling her husband that she no longer loves him in a cigarette smoke filled room, rather than it sounding like people running from zombies.



"Get To France" is from the forthcoming Earth Division EP released via Rock Action records on the 12th of September.

The day that Twitter flatlined (but it's on the mend)

A few days ago I wrote a tweet in which I claimed that Twitter had died along with Amy Winehouse. It appears that things are back to normal now, so maybe the social network du jour had simply passed out for a while. Now, it appears we are able to say what we want without fear of recrimination, but for a bit it was touch and go as to whether our own opinions would be allowed on there again as it seemed everybody had their own agenda to fulfil in the aftermath of Winehouse's death.

This isn't the first time freedom of speech was brought into question on Twitter. Who can forget Paul Chambers? He was the guy last year who threatened to blow up Robin Hood airport. He was charged with "sending a menacing electronic communication". On that occasion, everybody rallied together, and although he was completely unsuccessful in any attempts to get his conviction overturned, he had the power of thousands, even millions, of Twitter users behind him as the story became "us vs the evil freedom of speech threatening overlords".

This time though, we turned on each other. There were two camps on my timeline. One was those with the "she deserved it"/"let's joke about it" slant. Now, I don't think she deserved it for one moment. Yes, she made some stupid decisions, and whilst her passing was very sad, no-one can deny that it was the least unexpected celebrity death in a long time, but that's not a decleration for anyone "deserving" death. The jokes, on the other hand, I can understand. Whether you think it's correct to laugh at jokes about someone right after they pass, I think that humour can help people through a situation. Of course, it could just be a case of someone being a dick, but I like to think the people I choose to follow on Twiter could never be so crass.

On the other side of the fence, it was those who decided Amy Winehouse should be vigorously defended. Just one example of this was Aidan Moffat, of Arab Strap fame. He declared that "there's an inordinate amount of dicks making stupid comments about Amy Winehouse. Anyone who mentions the '27 club' needs a fucking slap." Now, because people are making negative comments about someone Mr. Moffat probably doesn't know, negative comments are being made about other people that Mr. Moffat probably doesn't know. And the 27 club is something surely noteworthy, in that it is a fact, a statistic which keeps rearing it's head. Maybe club isn't the best word for it, but does curse, or any other phrase make it sound any better?

I'm not now being hypocritical with a personal attack on Mr. Moffat here. That's not the point of this, and as I say, the above quoted tweet was just an example of many similar ones, but in the 24 hours following the death of Amy Winehouse, Twitter wasn't a very pleasant place to be.

Now I don't really have a problem with either of these camps- I understand both points of view equally and have no problem viewing either side of things. But what I don't understand is why people from the two camps follow each other? Twitter is what you make it, and it's your freedom of choice who to follow, and who not to follow. So if you disagree with something someone says, either unfollow them, or have enough respect to understand their point of view, and don't make it uneasy for those of us who follow both of you by having a barney. DM it to each other if you like, but don't make hypocrites of yourselves by trying to stop the freedom of speech that you so vigourously defended last year.