As well as the sight of Ronan Keating dancing, this week’s top music videos bring you Pink on typically bolshy form, the ever-slinky Sugababes, and Anastacia’s speaker-shattering volume.
Boyzone – I Love You Anyway
Now here’s a turn-up for the books: Boyzone’s new single isn’t a ballad. It is, in fact, the kind of uptempo number that requires of the boys (boyz?) some nifty dance moves, which, in the video, they admirably manage.
Kaiser Chiefs – Never Miss A Beat
There may not be very many settings on Kaiser Chiefs’ internal dial, but raucous, rousing festival singalongs are clearly a speciality. Never Miss A Beat, with its stomping mod refrain, is KC in extremis.
Pink – So What
Brilliantly bolshy, America’s most refreshing female pop star returns with a song that both mocks her recently failed marriage and takes an unrelated swipe at Paris Hilton. What Pink does in effect is curl her lip perennially. She does it terribly well.
Sugababes – Girls
Despite being regularly overshadowed by Girls Aloud, Sugababes remain the queens of production line pop, each successive hit more slinky than the last. Girls belies the fact that they are women now, but its catchiness is delightfully teenage.
Anastacia – I Can Feel You
Typically Anastacia, this: a powerhouse dance rhythm over which comes a voice that could sink the Titanic. This triumphant comeback single could sink the iceberg as well.
N’Dubz – Ouch
Imagine a So Solid Crew on a more R&B tip, and from Camden rather than Peckham, and you pretty much have N’Dubz in a nutshell. Ouch is slick and stylish, and it catches the sun the way glinting jewellery does.
Saturdays – Up
Surprisingly not discovered on X Factor, the Saturdays are a disconcertingly pretty new British girl group, and Up pushes enough of the right buttons to make Girls Aloud worry about their sell-by date.
Oasis – The Shock Of The Lightning
Pleasingly, Oasis are ageing with dignity — not by becoming polished, sombre and smooth, but rather by adding dimensions to their sound. Lumpy syntax aside, The Shock Of The Lightning is belligerent, scruffy, and pulses like blood.
Basshunter – Angel In The Night
Current Euro dancemaster Jonas Erik Altberg – or, mercifully, simply Basshunter – excels in the kind of cheesy dance track that sounds as if it was equally inspired by computer game bleeps and sultry Ibiza nights.
Leona Lewis – Forgive Me
Proof that her pulse can beat at a tempo faster than four-and-a-half bpm, X Factor winner Leona Lewis finally rings in with something driven by a harder and faster rhythm. A welcome change.
