No Good
Where I work, the radio station of choice is Smooth FM, a radio station almost exclusively designed to make old men reminisce and make young men suicidal. 24 hours a day of Smashy and Nicey style DJs with a back catalogue of Rod fucking Stewart and A Whiter Shade of Pale at least 3 times an hour.
Lately, the recent revival of ‘big band’ singers (Winehouse, Buble and to a lesser extent Williams) has caused Smooth to buck the trend and start playing this recent, but stylistically quite old music. One of the songs of this ilk is ‘She Said’ by Plan B. It goes like this, but has all of the rap bits cut out, and one of the verses repeated to extend it a bit.
This is all well and good, it’s nice to see a young musician opening up other revenue streams, and it’s also good to see the major radio stations taking a (small, admittedly) risk for their stuck in the mud listeners looking for something new, but not too new.
There is, of course, one little problem with this. This is Plan B’s second album, he released a slightly less ‘big band’ CD called ‘Who Needs Actions When You’ve Got Words’. It was basically a British version of Eminem, but without the social niceties. One of the songs (I say songs, but they’re more like tourettes rants set to music) begins thus:
I’ll stab you in the eye, yo,
With a fucking biro
The same fucking biro you just used to sign your giro,
You fucking wino
Don’t fucking cross my line, yo,
I’ll hit you so hard your arse will hit the floor in Cairo.
It would be brilliant then, should one of the Smooth FM mob venture into HMV one day looking for the Plan B album - he’s such a classy singer - and notice that hey, he’s already got an album out! I’ll have to get that. And put it on in the car on the way home with Ethel. Altogether now!
What things have you seen that have been watered down for public consumption lately, readers?
