Music Blogs

Welcome to Yahoo! Music's whistle-stop guide to what's happening in music this week. Every seven days in Recommenders we check-out the latest tracks, downloads, leaks, links and video clips from the corners of every genre and let you know whether they're worth getting out of bed for. Today, DAN GENNOE puts the microscope up to ROBBIE WILLIAMS, WHITNEY HOUSTON, MR HUDSON, THE SATURDAYS, MASSIVE ATTACK and WILD BEASTS.

Gregorian chants, squelching electro bass, oversized ‘80s production, not one, not two but three hooks - one hypnotic (verse), one soaring (bridge), one stadium (the massive chorus); with all that and his legendary humour dialled down to a cool sardonic, it's clear that no chances are being taken with the comeback of Britain's biggest pop star, ROBBIE WILLIAMS (pictured). True nothing could live up to the expectation placed on "BODIES" - i.e. undoing the perception that multi-platinum, Number One album "RudeBox" killed his career - but swinging from brooding to colossal in a blur of Trevor Horn produced synchs, it certainly sounds like the definition of a triumphant return.

Also back from the abyss - aka an extended booze and drugs bender which regularly left her looking like a mad bag lady - is WHITNEY HOUSTON. Shimmying to "MILLION DOLLAR BILL"'s strident ‘70s groove, penned by Alicia Keys, she undeniably looks her perfectly polished self again in the video; those years of abuse having taken surprisingly little toll. When she starts singing though, she's barely recognisable. Her precise warble replaced by the hazy, huskiness of a weary diva, the song is alright, but the voice is clearly not OK.



Someone else missing the effect of a bankable voice is former esoteric indie caricature turned synth-pop worrier, MR HUDSON. With "WHITE LIES" he's looking to match the number two success of last single "Supernova". But "Supernova" featured Hudson's mentor Kanye West and an aching chorus. "White Lies", sadly, has neither. Intelligent and stylish, it's also a touch whiny and crying out for some cocky, cognac inspired, auto-tuned nonsense to cheer it up.

The same goes for THE SATURDAYS who also follow their best single to date - underrated future pop classic "Work" - with something in danger of taking itself way too seriously. With their second album they're looking to swap cute for sexy and "FOREVER IS OVER" is a big, belting piece of grown-up pop drama to cast them as rivals Girls Aloud should be scared of. Unfortunately they stand to put the fear of god into everyone else with a chorus full of shouting. Which isn't sexy. Or cute. Or necessary.

One place you definitely won't find any shouting is MASSIVE ATTACK's first new song in six years, "SPLITTING THE ATOM". You'd be lucky to find a pulse. If the dead could make low-slung dance music, this five and half minutes of slow shuffling, deep slurring ghoulishness is surely what it would sound like. With each album taking approximately a year longer to appear than the last, some fans might be alarmed to find they've waited all this time for something Nick Cave could have mumbled in his sleep. It's not without charm though, however Adams Family.

Which brings us to the equally surreal, "ALL THE KING'S MEN" by WILD BEASTS. Joy Division meets Talking Heads for a manic dance round a sacrificial virgin tied to a stake, it's as endearing as it is strange. Get over the shock of singer Hayden Thorpe's wild shifts from deep-throated seduction to eye-popping falsetto, and the jangling, off-kilter examination of the mating rituals of boys and girls is a rarity in indie-pop, a burst of unselfconscious sweetness - albeit from slightly unhinged view point.