JLS – The Club Is Alive

The new JLS single, beginning their second album launch.

McLovin

Craig and I heard a minute of this in May- the tail end of the first verse, the bridge and the whole chorus – and were extremely excited to hear the rest of it. When the full track was released a few days later, our only disappointment was the lack of variation. The verses sound pretty much identical, aside from each member getting their own lines. Apart from this, The Club Is Alive is a fantastic comeback single. Let’s get the obvious things out of the way – Autotune and American slang. Complaints about these features seem to have been the biggest problem people have with the song. In the band’s defence, they aren’t the first group to use Autotune this year and won’t be the last. Perhaps it is used slightly too enthusiastically, but I don’t find it that much of a problem. The objection to women being described as ‘shawties’ is more understandable but replicating American RnB is hardly a new direction for JLS. The most British they have been in the past is performing a Beatles medley on The X Factor, which was a bit of a disaster.

What hasn’t been remarked on as much is how audacious it is to lift the chorus from The Hills Are Alive. The most recent example of using The Sound of Music in a pop song is Gwen Stefani’s number 3 hit Wind It Up from 2006, which used the yodeling The Lonely Goatherd. The JLS track isn’t as daring as that song, but maybe this is an advantage. Whereas it was difficult to get passed the yodeling on Stefani’s song, after a few listens it’s easy to forget where The Club Is Alive’s chorus has been taken from. What we are left with is a suitable epic and exciting production, a great start to their new campaign and a guaranteed third number one.

Spyke
What can I say about this track that hasn't already been said; it was possibly a risky choice of sample of paper but actually works quite well within the track, you can just see how much this band have come on since their days on the X Factor and even their first album. I think leaving the track 2 months between leaking and getting a release could have backfired here slightly as it's taken quite the tumble down the chart in it's second week; a month would have been enough as it seems such a long time ago I had this song on repeat. I imagine the follow up single should drop soon and then followed by the album later in time for Christmas - but unless they do something wrong I can't see either missing the #1 spots.

Chart Predictions:
McLovin: 1
Spyke: 1
Actual: 1