Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Never mind that any type of music can be reduced to a "just..." sentence like that - and therefore dismissed - if you really work at it. Try it yourself: Metal is just hairy blokes retching over grunty guitars. Indie is just bowlheaded skinnyboys coughing over old Kinks records. Classical music is just band camp geeks showing off...etc etc...

Now I know there are people who hold this view of hip hop even though they are not currently in their fifties. Certainly some of the lovely rock fans at the Download festival seemed to be of a like mind when they tried to bottle off Lethal Bizzle, and I know for a fact that my dad was in the garden on that day. But it does seem to be a little unfair to deliberately cut something out of a song in case it offends a certain audience.

Surely if they like the song enough, they can put up with everything. To put it in a way that people of that age would understand, you don't expect 'Bohemian Rhapsody' without the "Galileo, Galileo" bits in case it offends people who don't like opera, do you?

And it's not like anyone ever took the time to cut out the bits of songs which annoyed ME. Like most of the lyrics to 'Buck Rogers' by Feeder, or the little hiccup in the singing voice of Luke Kooks, or the bits in Madonna songs when you can hear her at all. So, y'know, what the hell?

But the most interesting thing is that it suggests that Estelle has been recognised as a worthy talent by the old gippers. She's someone they can relate to, with her talent and her lovely voice and her good songs. They can hear that she is not just another silly little girl who pretends to be sexually aroused all the time (which must make doing the weekly shop interesting, I would imagine), or a 'manufactured' 'singer' who 'makes' 'manufactured' 'pop' 'music' in a 'manufactory'...or something.

And even though this assesment is based on a rubbish prejudice about modern pop music and why it is not like olden days pop music (for the same reason that mobile phones are not like the old spinning-dial phones you see in Life On Mars, since you ask), it's undeniably true. Estelle is different, she is good, and she is worthy of anyone's attention, as one listen to this lovely, Lover's Rock-infused blast at a hopeless boyfriend will prove beyond all reasonable doubt.

Now, who's up for editing Kanye's 'American Boy' bit into this this song, just to freak 'em out?

Download: Out now
CD Released: June 30th

(Fraser McAlpine)