Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

Oh my god, what happened to Kid Harpoon? Last time I saw Kid Harpoon (live a year ago), he was a quirky inventive acoustic songwriter, he had an old England charm to his music, if your not familar with him check out Late For The Devil. So now Kid Harpoon has had a record deal make over, all the fragility and cracks have been smoothed over, he has the production gleam, he sounds very polished almost eighties, perhaps New Wave. Problem is he's lost all his identity, this single is bland and forgettable, it's like listening to Jack Penate, hell Paolo Nutini *shudder* sounds more interesting than this. So dull forgettable and but still slightly charming, this is a big dissapointment, but it'll probably put him on the path to indie stardom.

Well seeing as I'm in the middle of the greatest eighties album list this is a rather appropraite re-release. If your wondering it's the 20th anniversary of their ground breaking debut. While I can hardly critique Fool's Gold it's a classic, it seems an odd choice, is there anyone who likes this song that doesn't already own it? I get that they want to put a single out there but how about Made Of Stone its equally as awesome and it's not as well known. Still if you haven't heard it then it's more than worth the 79p.

The Temper Trap went down a storm at Glastonbury helped by the BBC actually deciding to give a band that isn't particularly well known some coverage. Many of you will be familar with this song as it's doing the rounds on adverts and sports highlight packages. It starts out indifferently, a beautiful singing voice but a recycled U2 riff hardly inspires, but the chorus is so damn catchy and euphoric. Their a bit too querky for real mainstream success but they have all the building blocks here for a mid sized hit. A very hard track to dislike.

Oh dear Pitbull, seriously? How did he make it to a second album? He actually has less skill than Flo Rida. Now while Crunk is stupid and obnoxious, it is silly fun, Latino/southern rap is the opposite, this is not fun, it's too morose. While Lil'Jon is morose, he is clearly knowingly so, there is a nod and a wink as he lays down his ridiculous raps. With Pitbull there is no nod and wink, he actually thinks this is cool. Well this song has underwhelmed on MTV but I'm sure it will be a moderate hit, I thought we left this crap behind in the 90s. Next please.

Now many may have noted the absence of Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga from my greatest album of the decade list, and well to be honest, it probably deserved a spot, and when I do my end of year revisions it might sneak in, or it might not. Now as for Got Nuffin' it's driven by a pulsating rhythem section and some minimalist guitar work, it's certainly catchy enough and a solid single, but it never really thrills, there's nothing new here. It's a tough one to recommend, you'll probably enjoy it if you decided to download it but nothing more than that, come the end of the year this won't still be on your ipod or in your playlists.

Okay so every week I will pick a sixth single from an act who I don't know and delve into their world to give you my thoughts. This week its Polarkreis 18, there a German synth pop act from Dresden, now I'm sure the words German and synth pop have sent a certain percentage running to the hills but don't worry it's not so bad. They feel like there channelling the powers of Depeche Mode and suqeezing it through an Aha filter and ended up sounding like Calvin Patrol (or should that be Snow Harris), combining europhic synths with a inescapable chorus. It doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel but it's that kind of annoying EuroPop that's impossible to get out of your head once it takes root (see Yelle - A Cause Des Garcon http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4uc5q_yelle-a-cause-des-garcon)