16th July 2008
A new concept in Spirit of SSL, this was the compilation where everyone was invited to choose music that they feel guilty about liking -- so it's hardly surprising that so much of it is poo.
The Copper Family - Good Ale
(mikec)
Despite the lack of any actual good qualities, I can't help
sort of liking this. A few days ago, I found myself humming
it to myself while driving. Despite lines like "If my wife
should me despise / How soon I'd give her two black eyes",
there is, somehow, something good-spirited about it. Weird.
6/10
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five - The Message
(matthew)
Do we even allow rap on these compilations? SSL
old-timers will remember building the ROCKnROM product, and
all its icons representing the various genres of music, each
named for some reason by the name of the genre prefixed by
the letter "c". How very appropriate. Like all rap, this
grows gradually more intolerable as it progresses, so that
what starts out as a novelty song no more objectionable than,
say, that thing by Keith Harris and Orville; but by the time
we're two minutes in, it's become all but unbearable. A
punishment to listen to.
1/10
Rod Stewart - Sailing
(mark)
A truly bizarre choice. It's strange to think that there was
a time when Rod Stewart was a respected singer, when now one
mostly thinks of Sunday Mirror exclusives and that Scottish
World Cup song that somehow contrived to be even more
embarrassing than Ally's Army. Whatever respect
Stewart might have earned earlier in his career was
systematically dismantled by, among other things,
Sailing.
2/10
Billy Bragg - The World Turned Upside Down
(mike)
See
Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards.
1.5/10
Level 42 - Lessons in Love
(alec)
You know all those reviews in Melody Maker that used to begin
with sentiments like "Sometimes you feel -- or hope -- that
the whole of the 70s was just a bad dream"? That's how I
feel about the 80s. What a wasteland. Since the Spirit
of SSL series
has already used
the only eighties band that's actually worth remembering, I
suppose this is a not-too-bad scraping from the top of a
decidely unwholesome barrel.
5/10
Elton John - I'm Still Standing
(ellie)
It's hard to remember that there was an Elton John back in
the days before he
became an Elton John parody act, and hard to forgive him for
what he did to his own pre-parody-era Candle in the
Wind, but I suppose this is still a pretty good song.
6/10
George Michael - I Want Your Sex (Parts 1 and 2)
(olly)
Wholly contemptible.
0/10
(Later: and so darned long.)
The Monkees - I'm a Believer
(mirk)
My own selection, and if I remember rightly from the launch
party a very popular one -- so much so that some people
complained that it was ineligible because of not being
"guilty" enough. I suppose I'd better justify this by
pointing out what a truly horribly contrived thing the
Monkees were -- the most transparent possible attempt to cash
in on the popularity of the Beatles' films, assembled from
auditions primarily on the basis of who would look good. All
the more astonishing, then, that they actually ended up
recording some storming songs, "pop" in the best sense of the
word, of which I'm a Believer is just one. I'm a
sucker for its straightforward joyfulness, and I'm not
ashamed to admit it.
It's also less than a third as long as I Want Your Sex. 9/10
Survivor - Broken Promises
(sacha)
It's become a matter of some astonishment to me that Sacha
manages to hit exactly the same target so consistently.
There could never have been the slightest doubt that this was
his selection. There's actually not much to object to here,
but it's instantly forgettable.
5/10
The Cambridge Singers - I Know Where I'm Going
(mas)
Quite the change of pace. I struggle to wrap my head around
this, so I am going to wimp out and give it
5/10
Meatloaf - Paradise By The Dashboard Light
(becca)
What on earth is there to be guilty about? This is a stone
cold classic, one of the all-time great rock-'n'-roll songs,
and a comedy masterpiece in its spare time. Even now, having
heard it more times than I can count, I still find myself
laughing out loud every time Meat goes into the "Let me sleep
on it" section.
10/10
Bobby Vinton - Blue Velvet
(john)
Well, now, wasn't that special?
6/10
The Hollies - The Times They Are A-Changin'
(sarah)
This must be one of the most ill-advised covers ever. It
would be a bit like the Carpenters covering Wild
Thing. And yet, it sort of works. Sort of. And I
suppose anything would be better than Dylan's original.
4/10
John Stainer - Litany of the Passion
(mas)
See I Know Where I'm Going.
5/10
Berri - Sunshine After the Rain
(olly)
Starts out as a rip-off, er, an homage to Donna Summer's
I Feel Love, yet with all that was distinctive and
interesting about that song's opening ripped out. That's the
good part. It becomes almost unlistenable when the
vocal1 comes
in. Why would anyone perpetrate something like this?
Really, why? Why?
2/10
The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
(mike)
I'm so relieved that Sunshine After the Rain has
finished that I am going to award this a completely
undeserved seven. It does at least have the merit of being
very, very distinctive. It's hard to believe it was only
released in 2006 -- it absolutely reeks of the mid 1970s.
7/10.
Dick Van Dyke & Sally Ann Howes - Doll on a Music Box, Truly Scrumptious
(alec)
One hardly knows what to say.
6/10
The average score comes to 4.74, which, surprisingly, is not the lowest ever: it's beaten into second place by volume 4, which scored only 4.56 points.
Note 1. If you want to call it that.