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Thursday March 28, 2024

Steps don’t stray from their successful formula on What The Future Holds

By Pa
November 26, 2020

STEPS — WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

The ’90s dance-pop band’s sixth studio album opens with the catchy title track and first single What The Future Holds. Then it’s straight into the second single, the pleasingly Abba-esque Something In Your Eyes.

The family-friendly dancefloor hits continue with One Touch, one of the strongest tracks thanks to a combination of a fast singalong chorus and slower verses. The smoother and slightly theatrical Under My Skin follows, then it’s back to the high energy dance with Heartbreak In This City.

Short, sharp strings and piano add something different to Come And Dance With Me, and To The One has some interesting twists. Hold My Heart is slower and more emotional, allowing the band to show off their strong voices and harmonising skills.

Some might prefer a little more variety in the 13 tracks but keeping to their successful formula means Steps fans will probably love this. 7/10 (Review by Beverley Rouse)

GARY BARLOW — MUSIC PLAYED BY HUMANS

Have Kraftwerk gone acoustic? Is this an avant-garde electronica composer’s latest opus? No, it’s just our Gary, doing what he’s always done but with a title that nods towards the fact there are real instruments.

On the opening track he shows how “human” this record is by featuring Sgt Pepper’s-style tuning up, followed by a faux-humble spoken introduction. And then — BANG — Barlow’s serving up hot jazz in Who’s Driving This Thing, which sounds like a decent tune from the cutting room floor of the musical Chicago.

The album remains in the same up-tempo vibe for the first four tracks, and though your toe’s been tapping (especially on Enough Is Enough, a duet with Beverley Knight), something’s been bothering you.

Is it the somewhat nondescript quality of Barlow’s voice? Not quite — but lead single Elita, featuring Michael Buble and Sebastian Yatra, tips you off — the crooning, the duets, the big arrangements: Barlow is trying to muscle in on Buble. 8/10 (Review by Rachel Farrow)

Smashing Pumpkins — CYR

Twenty-five years on from Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, Smashing Pumpkins are doubling up again. New album CYR reunites Billy Corgan, fellow founder members James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin and long-time guitarist Jeff Schroeder, with the frontman taking on production duties and adding synthesisers to his repertoire to give a new dynamic, most evident on opener The Colour Of Love and Tyger, Tyger. Thematically, the album lies on the dark side as witches (including the Wyttch of one of the stand-out tracks) and necromancers abound, while another track is titled Anno Satana.

Backing singers Katie Cole and Sierra Swan elevate Black Forest, Black Hills and A Hidden Sun from a 20-track set which at times becomes slightly samey. Throw in a five-art animated film rolled out across a series of double A-side singles and there is a lot to digest — for hardcore fans, though, it’s twice as nice. 7/10 (Review by Tom White)

SPANDAU BALLET — 40 YEARS — THE GREATEST HITS

Released exactly four decades after they signed their first recording contract, 40 Years — The Greatest Hits charts Spandau Ballet’s rise from punky upstarts to New Romantic icons. Its three CDs strike a fine balance between chart-ready hits (Gold, True), fan favourites (Through The Barricades) and unheard cuts (a striking cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s The Boxer recorded back in 1990).

Spandau Ballet have seen their fair share of internal power struggles across the years. This compilation, however, shines the spotlight a band obsessed equally with social commentary and pure, unadulterated pop.

Spandau Ballet — led by Tony Hadley and the Kemp brothers — have reformed enough times in the last decade that even the most fervent fans will not be gasping for more. But 40 Years — The Greatest Hits remains both an effective entry point for new listeners and a reminder of Spandau Ballet’s surprising breadth. 7/10 (Review by Alex Green)

MICKO AND THE MELLOTRONICS — ½ DOVE — ½ PIGEON

Micko Westmoreland has remained somewhat below the radar despite decades making music and acting, including portraying Jack Fairy in cult 1998 glam rock film Velvet Goldmine. His band includes guitarist Jon Klein, who spent eight years in Siouxsie And The Banshees, but their debut album is neither glam nor goth.

Instead, think Magazine and XTC-style art-punk with added touches of 1995 Britpop and 1965 Swinging London. Opener Noisy Neighbours is classic new wave underpinned by a nagging guitar line, while Psychedelic Shirt is a Pulp-like ode to a red, blue and green garment bought at Leeds market and worn to “a disco in a disused scout hut”.

The intro to The Finger sounds variously like You Can’t Hurry Love, A Town Called Malice or Lust For Life while The Fear has a mariachi feel, with horns and violins underpinning lyrics about psychologist Georg Eifert.

The elegiac You Killed Me Father — featuring the late Neil Innes from the Rutles — has a gentle acoustic guitar chorus at odds with the lyric (“you killed my father and now you must die”), and The Specials’ bassist Horace Panter plays on The Finger and Sick & Tired.

The album ends strongly with Halcyon Days, about lost days and nights in New York City, the last of 10 short, sharp songs full of earworm tunes and witty lyrics which will make you wonder why Westmoreland isn’t better known. 7/10 (Review by Mathew George).