91Èȱ¬

Tommy Sparks knows this better than most, as a man whose previous chief claim to fame was playing stand-in bass for Bloc Party, a band who, for all their sonic innovation and ghost-faced thrillers, are not very pop.

(. In which some disintegrated space-weirdos are resurrected by a tubby man's laser nipples. No, really!)

Can you imagine Kele and co coming out with a great big cheesy disco funk-off like this? Dirty, messy, squelchy and rude, it arrives via a synth-riff that Tommy has clearly bashed out with his fists, before suddenly taking a cockeyed swagger into clipped, Talking Heads-style funky pop via the Chili Peppers' (amazing, by the way) 'Rollercoaster Of Love'.

Lyrically, there's some woman who seems to be stuck with a bunch of problems, and this eats into her valuable dancing time (I *think*). To cheer her up, our Tom suggests a spot of rug-cutting. Five minutes later, he finds himself on a dance-floor, enjoying himself, probably to a song which is either this song or as good as this song, without even realising that he was in the mood for a bit of a bop too.

That sudden self-consciousness, where poor Tommy worries that he might be making a bit of an doofus of himself, but he's only trying to be helpful, and in any case he can't seem to stop his body moving to that crazy beat, is very pop too.

After all, you've got to let go of your cool to have fun. Give it a try, rocksnobs!

Download: Out now
CD Released: May 4th

91Èȱ¬ Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)