Million Pound Give Away
Anna C feels three pints from happy

ID GUINNESS- Cure for the common crush

The first track of this album sampler, "Rising River", prompts me to scream very loudly "Is this a joke following my Maroon Five review?" I am not afraid of a bit of cheese but I wouldn't go so far as to say the world needs another band of pop-funk pioneers. I breathe a little more easily when I discover that Id is but one Canadian man so the battle is almost half-won already. I am yet further enthralled to learn that Id rhymes with Syd, according to the astute press officer who needs to be sacked immediately. And, as I listen further, though there aren't any songs that grab me and make me remember them minutes after, the songs that follow don't sound like Maroon 5 and you can't knock the bloke for creating something very ambitious and actually pulling it off. The only thing is is that, several decades ago, many now-very-famous bands and artists have already pulled it off and Id "Syd" Guinness could stand just a wee bit accused of ripping off Pink Floyd and David Bowie and very much charged with copying The Beatles ("The one that got away" AKA "Eleanor Rigby"). If he was a bit more glamorous and his pants a little tighter, he could also be impersonating Mr. Jake Shears on an epic prog-rock enthused "I have seen the future". He has chosen to follow in the footsteps of just a few legends and I fear that he may need to come up with more than a cure for the common crush to stand up and be counted this time. A-tish-oo. Oh dear.

www.idguinness.com

MILLION POUND GIVEAWAY- 3 pints from happy

Yes, I think I am. Some kind soul in an office somewhere said that listening to this is not far off the feeling you might get from winning the lottery. I always knew why I never bother to play it. It's obviously over-rated. Although this latest offering from this Liverpool quartet is inoffensive enough, and they do sound like they're having fun, it is nonetheless pretty much unoriginal. It also bothers me that there is no set style to any of the tracks so it all ends up sounding a bit messy for my liking, kind of like what you'd expect when Eamon Holmes releases those balls. What they call a mix of alternative pop and sixties influences sounds like a bit of McFly with Billie Joe Armstrong on guest vox (opening track "Don't tell your Mother (we've gone to Mars)", to baggy-sounding Starsailor tribute to Kula Shaker come-back (which was attempted by the band itself and didn't seem to go too well) and finishes with an outro (!), which they don't get away with and which is basically a lot of widdly guitar played relentlessly over a backing track of what I can only assume is meant to be psychedelia. If I needed to say, this just isn't my cup of tea, never mind my tipple.

www.myspace.com/millionpoundgiveaway

Anna C