Eoin Butler's guide to singles, downloads and free audiostreams
TAKE THAT
Greatest Day
Polydor **
It's being billed as the opening salvo in this year's battle for the Christmas number one spot (of which, much more next week). If it is, Take That have made some pretty elementary mistakes here. There are no sleigh bells, rosy cheeks or fake snow. The video depicts Gaz and the lads in sunny LA, bopping around on top of a 60-storey skyscraper in their shirtsleeves . . . Shirtsleeves?! On the plus side, the helipad they're standing could possibly accommodate reindeers. A poor show.
LEONA LEWIS
Run
Sony BMG **
Originally released in 2003, Runwas the track that, overnight, turned Snow Patrol from scruffy indie also-rans into stadium-filling, multiplatinum- selling also-rans. Well, if the original wasn't bland, overwrought or soulless enough for you, here's former X Factorwinner Leona Lewis with her version. She really throws the kitchen sink at it, but there's still a great big hole where a song should be.
CHRIS BROWN FEATURING KERI HILSON
Superhuman
Jive **
Any romantic sentiment in the song is tempered slightly by the fact that Chris Brown looks like he's trying to pass a kidney stone in the video.
THE PRIESTS
Pie Jesu
Epic **
They've got the Manic Street Preachers and Dido's producer, Radiohead's string arranger and Eminem and Marilyn Manson's manager. David Bailey shot their the album cover. But, for all that, the most apt comparison might be to The Miracle Is Mine- that grossly overlooked Eurovision entry from fathers Dick Byrne and Cyril McDuff in the classic Father Tedepisode.
THE FIREMAN
Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight
MPL *
The lead track from Paul McCartney's Electric Arangementscollaboration (with ex-Killing Joke bassist and U2 producer Youth) has been flagged in the tabloids as a swipe at Macca's ex-wife, Heather Mills. I'm not sure if there's any truth in that, but the onetime Beatle does a rather bizarre dog impression at the end. You could describe this as a psychedelic/electronic/ swamp blues fusion, but that would be overly charitable. This is just a mess.