Freedom - Sugababes MkIV

Here's the full video of the first track of an up-coming album by the Sugababes Tribute Band (or Sugababes MkIV if you like).

It's not a bad song. In spite of the name - and the launch in North Africa - the lyrics are about as shallow as you can get and seem to be written for teenagers who want to go to Clubs. There's some neat mixing towards the end. It just lacks the va va voom - the beat of the old Sugababes and the depth and harmony of singing.

Band members have promised a "fresh start" on their new album and a "big vocal pop" sound.

Rolling in the Deep

And this.... Listen to the power and range of that voice - and the subtlety of this song (although the phrase "we could have had it all" sounds familiar). This is Rolling in the Deep by Keisha Buchanan.



Apparently it's an Adele song. Here's a good review of Keisha's gig from MTV

A beautiful mess!

Watch this and weep! Keisha's been performing some of her new songs at an intimate performance. Now this is very, very promising in spite of some erratic audio.Can't wait for the album. This is Beautiful Mess...

Freedom - new anthem

The Sugababes Tribute Band has unveiled an anthemic new song at the Mawazine festival in Morrocco. Congratulations to the member of the audience who captured most of it on this grainy recording. Yes, it sounds pretty good - the sort of song that the UK really should submit to the Eurovision song contest. There couldn't have been a better venue for a song called Freedom than the home of the Arab Spring.

I'm quite looking forward to hearing a recorded version. Good luck to the new band - pop music seems pretty desperate at the moment and even an echo of the sound that was the quality backdrop to the 2000s will do it wonders.

Meanwhile what news of Keisha Buchanan's album?

Under Control? Keisha Buchanan

This is a leak from Keisha Buchanan's new album - suggested by some to be her new single. I hope not. Raw? yes, fresh? not sure! The direction takes her back to dance music - and that makes good sense. But the backing music is limited and lacks the delicacy of One Touch or the brilliant mixing of Angels with Dirty Faces. Keisha's voice is under-used and the backing vocals are dreadful. Perhaps there's a better remix out there.

On her tweets, she says it's a leak and there is "even better" to come. Now that sounds promising.

Keisha needs a brilliant solo career so she can be a magnet to recreate the Sugababes' magic.

Footnote: keisha-buchanan.com/ has short but much more promising sounding clip. Is there a better version out there? (Have now updated the Youtube video here to a better quality one. It still sounds a bit like the Vengaboys)