Reviewed by: Dom Passantino
Reviewed on: 2007-02-06

Posted 02/06/2007 - 08:25:38 AM by Defacto:
	Dom, if you you thought that particular edition of 'Stars in Their Eyes Kids' was disturbing you obviously never saw the one that had a twelve year-old pretending to be Tony Hadley. He looked like a little Patrick Bateman. Christ knows what his mates thought, he must've got a hiding for certain. Mika? Oh yeah, he's shit.
Posted 02/06/2007 - 09:00:18 AM by eldarko:
	You can't for a moment be trying to claim that Will fucking Young is Britain's biggest pop star? I mean, he's just.... not.
Posted 02/06/2007 - 09:49:01 AM by meatbreak:
	I remember saying underneath the Damien Rice review that there are plenty more albums deserving of space than dross like this. Same goes here. Please replace this review with something like Hetero Skeleton's 'En La Sombra Del Pàjaro Velludo' or Circle's 'Tyrant' or even Benighted Leams' 'Obombrid Welkins'. Or something. Your supposed to know more then me - tell me about summat good!
Posted 02/06/2007 - 09:53:37 AM by DomPassantino:
	Klashnekoff's first studio album is out later this month, and rest assured it will be getting an effusive review from myself. I feel it's important to detail what the bad things are in order for us to enjoy the good ones though or, metaphorically, a mushroom guide should tell you which fungi are going to kill you, as well as the ones that will make a nice risotto.
Posted 02/06/2007 - 10:46:31 AM by NickSouthall:
	An informative poster detailing the edibility/poisonousness of mushrooms found wild in the UK is the most commented-on poster in my office. Places like Stylus need to be reviewing artists like Mika in order to warn people who might otherwise be taken in by the "biggest tip of 2006" nonsense spouted by the likes of the BBC.
Posted 02/06/2007 - 11:21:38 AM by meatbreak:
	Well yeah, I see where you're coming from with that but at the same time I can't really agree with that kind of policy. It's not like I sit in my room listening to chart music just to make sure that it is as bad as I expect it to be. It's not something that even crosses my radar, except for reading Stylus (and looking out for where Klaxons land in the top ten: 2, woo hoo! **** Norah Jones) where, predictably, it is always panned because as Dom's review attests, it is simply not a kind of music that is worth acknowledging. Seriosuly - you guys, me, anyone reading this, is probably on this site because they are actually interested in music. Note, that this is very different from someone who says they like music then shows you their collection of cd's that have been pushed on them by corporate marketing strategies. I am not being pretentious or conceited at all when I say that, what I am getting at is the difference between passive consumption and active engagement. You know this though. Alas, you pulling a pop album apart and explaining (very amusingly by the way Dom, good work - making up for your Klaxons debacle) how pointless it is is not going to deter anyone on this site for two reasons: 1 - No one into chart music and Radio 2 reads it (dammit, no stats to back me up, but my hunch is telling me it's probably true), so you're not going to shine a light on anyone's 'ignorance.' 2 - Anyone reading your site who does like bland derivative music is probably secure in their tastes. For example, a few of the commenters under The View review defended the band in spite of the hilariously convincingly true and satirical shredding. So you can try as you like, but since your not offering anyone a road to Damascus moment you would better serve your readership (and yourselves for that matter) by spending all your available space on covering the stuff that you believe in and would want people to hear. Also remember, that all press is good press because it increases coverage - you're doing this Mika muppet a favour by writing even two words about him. The alternative? No press: Very very bad indeed. Well, that's how I'd do a magazine anyway. I'll finish by saying that everyone always seems to read my posts as very aggressive, which yeah, if you met me is how I'd probably talk, but you'd see me smiling, yeh?
Posted 02/06/2007 - 11:40:38 AM by blackrooster:
	You'd better watch out. Brian May will soon be after you: http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/1591719
Posted 02/06/2007 - 11:58:56 AM by NickSouthall:
	There's always SOME stuff worth panning through though, Meatbreak, plus the eternal "good single, is the album up to it" conundrum. Also, and this is probably an undervalued motivation behind why we write about what we write about, if someone has something worthwhile to say about a record, even if it's just "this is BAD", it's often worth saying it. I think that's laregly the case here. Dom loves his pop.cult. as much as his music, and part of that is decrying music that is pop.cult. and little else if it's bad. PS. That last Will Young album really did have a handful of cracking moments on it, and is way better than this witless idiocy.
Posted 02/06/2007 - 12:46:00 PM by wilde-thang:
	snip> a mushroom guide should tell you which fungi are going to kill you, as well as the ones that will make a nice risotto. Dom - i do hope that when you collect all your reviews and pieces for a future 'coffee table' publication you call it this. oh and i still haven't thanked you for getting me hooked on Morningwoods 'take off your clothes' - i hadn't realised how empty my life was listening to vast amounts of art-rock until your introduction on a podcast many moons ago. thanx!
Posted 02/06/2007 - 02:17:06 PM by PeteGuy:
	To ignore the 'most talked-about, biggest tip of 2007' would be plain silly. Stylus has done the right thing by correctly observing that this is overblown jizz off the end of Freddie's long decomposed corpse. Hurrah!
Posted 02/07/2007 - 04:41:23 AM by meatbreak:
	O.K., so Pop music is the driving force of the Western world and does deserve to be discussed, but my opinion still holds. I seriously doubt Will Young has anything worthwhile for me. I really don't believe in holding up this kind of music as anything other than an indication of how not to do things. Focus grouped corporate sterility is not something that I can ever equate with a pleasurable listen. Your mushroom guide analogy is o.k., but you're not likey to see a Burger King mushroom swiss on it are you? Sugababes and Girls Aloud - They're club music. Not in the same league. Except the ballady pointless stuff. That's my contradiction, but it's not hypocritical. Their beats tracks have purpose. The 'Pop' music I am referring, which has no artistic merit or integrity has no other purpose than the cynically manipulated goal of making a record company richer. Ignore 'The biggest tip'. Ignore it. This nonesense will go away if people ignore it. Problem is (Here's my intolerant bit), the general public are lazy, and as I said previously, all too suceptible to having stuff marketed on to them, which of course, the best minds in the business are all to adept at exploiting. I wouldn't acknowledge their existence by writing about their product and I would (do) spend my time spreading the word of exciting, innovative music interested in anything but riding the wheel of fortune and fame. If that comes along in the wake of the music created then that is a bonus/curse (depending on how it pans out...more K*****s references), but it is not the driving force behind the music; unlike most pop acts who have been sculpted to fit a market researched niche or moulded to capitalise on an existing profitable form, whose motivation seems to be fame with a few aphoristic quotes about how it's all about the music thrown in to interviews for good measure. I do enjoy reading a funny hatchet-job, but I'd rather read about something worthwhile.
Posted 02/17/2007 - 07:26:56 PM by barbarian:
	Dom, gotta say I'm glad you bashed this album. I heard it for about ten seconds until I heard some guy singing and then immediately turned it off. The guy sounded like the dude from Belle & Sebastian.