Elbow - Open Arms

Everyone loves a bit of Elbow, don't they? There's something inherently charming about their innate English-ness and front-man Guy Garvey's everyman demeanor. And if Neat Little Rows was their new albums Grounds For Divorce, then surely Open Arms must be the new One Day Like This.

Let's have a look at the Elbow checklist. Big anthemic chorus. Twinkly guitars. A stomping, relentless drum beat. It's all there. One reason Elbow work so well is because their music is of the sort that, if you'll pardon the pun, opens its arms wide to the people. This is the sound of an arena of enraptured fans signing their hearts out to their idols. It's also the sound of a nation's emotions and spirit, captured perfectly in five minutes of delicate lyrical poetry. When Garvey calls out 'Everyone sing...', he calls out to us... you, I, and everyone we know. In one moment, a collective voice sings out; crystal clear and fine.

I think it took a performance like last night's breathtaking Comic Relief spectactular, complete with full choir, to make me fully realise the power of this song. In the context of the rest of Build A Rocket Boys! this is a triumphant late-album ballad, but taken on its own, Open Arms becomes the epic beauty it was always destined to be. Sometimes music speaks out to you, beyond any logic and reason; and this is one of those moments. Timeless and elegiac, this is Elbow once again hitting the heighest of heights.

Take That - Happy Now

Kicking off with a trippy electronica intro that could have come straight off the latest glossy TV ad, Take That's Happy Now quickly slaps a big dollop of vocodered Robbie Williams in your lap as he whispers about 'super-heavy elements'. Is this a chemistry lesson or a pop single?

But then comes the chorus, so glorious and joyous in every extreme, you're left speechless at the marvelous duality of the track. Cold, wintery verses and then explosive choruses of spring-like energy. Compared to the epic power of The Flood and the electro-stomp of Kidz, Happy Now in a way represents the most traditionally 'pop' record off the new Take That album. Yes, the chorus really is that good. It's a slice of unashamed euro-disco that you just don't get enough of anymore.

Take That's move to a more electronic-influenced sound has certainly divided opinion, but for me, when it has resulted in such a brilliant run of singles as this you can't fault the boys. That is if this does indeed become the third single from the album (which I sincerely hope it does). Imagine the Take That boys performing this live at Wembley Stadium... that chorus is simply a pure arms aloft moment, the pleasures of pop music distilled into that one perfect moment. That's what it's all about.

George Michael - True Faith

Wow. Talk about auto-tune overload. When I heard George Michael was going to be covering New Order's True Faith, this wasn't what I was expecting. I imagined a more straight-up version of the song instead of this drastic re-invisioning. I guess in a way what he's done with it is a good thing; it's far enough from the original that I can like it on its own merits. But unfortunately, at the end of the day, it just doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Let's be fair, it's not a bad version, per se. It's all very sunny and chilled-out. You could sit on a tropical beach sipping cocktails to this. But it all feels so aimless, like George just pulled the vocal out in one take over a swirly soup of guitar and synths, and then shoved a load of auto-tune on it.

This was never going to be good as New Order's True Faith. But I was yearning for something so much more here. It's a shame because if this was a track on its complete own right, it'd be fantastic. But as with all cover versions, there is always that danger of comparison. Ahhh well, shove a big fat dance beat underneath it and it'll sound amazing.

George Michael, please do True Faith justice...

So, what we know: George Michael is doing a song for Comic Relief, but the best thing is that it'll be a cover of New Order's 1987 hit True Faith. Now, New Order are in my top five favourite bands of all time and True Faith is one of my favourite singles of theirs, so I'm really, really hoping George can do proper justice to the track. I haven't been this excited about a Comic Relief single since Girls Aloud and The Sugababes released their cover of Walk This Way. Good ol' Red Nose Day obviously has a fancy for classic 80s hits.

Anyway, please could this be more like the amazingness that was Rihanna sampling New Order's Blue Monday on Shut Up And Drive and not some boring middle of the road Radio 2 friendly re-hash of the track. George himself has brought out some great dance-pop tracks in the past so please can his True Faith cover continue in this tradition.

Oh, and all the proceeds from the single go to charity, which is always nice.

True Faith is released 13th March.

The Wanted - Gold Forever

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for The Wanted, All Time Low was one of my favourite pop songs from last year, so I was intrigued to hear what their new single would sound like. Well, for starters, it begins like some epic Coldplay/Take That ballad. Definitely more than a few pages being taken out of the big Gary Barlow songbook at any rate.

And then, suddenly, it goes all Basshunter, erupting into a massive synth riff that quite literally blows your socks off. Boybands seem to be quite big fans of ballad-into-dance songs at the moment (Look at JLS, they've done it twice). But let's be honest it's a formula that works, and if something works well, why not use it again. It's a rule The Wanted stick to closely; you even get a rhythmic All Time Low string section thrown into the mix.

All in all, Gold Forever is a strong track, my only reservations being that there are so many better tracks on The Wanted's debut album which will probably never see the light of the day as singles now. But anyways, this track is for Comic Relief, so go out and buy it - do your bit for charity etc.

Oh, and when I heard the title of this song was Gold Forever, I had a brief image of this being some raved up futuristic cover version of Spandau Ballet's Gold. Now that would have been amazing.