Scott Granger: The Dolly Rockers add dash of colour to pop anthems

Published on Friday 12 June 2009 14:55

FIRST - and I'm not one to be making anyone jealous you understand - but I can't think of a better place to write this column from. Right now, I'm sitting on the beach with my laptop, which is sooo good.

To get down to the music for you all to enjoy, and this week's one for the girls comes from new pop divas on the block The Dolly Rockers (pictured) with their bonny ditty: Je Suis Une Dolly.

Musically the trio pilfer from the past, creating glorious, post-mash-up, pre-clubbing anthems that feature enormous, instantly hooking choruses.

Lyrically they take on spray-on tanned orange girls, z-listed wannabe celebs and WAGs in songs that are littered with chips, energy drinks and the frustrations of living at home.

It's all topped off with a very knowing take on pop music from the last 30 years – from the Human League to Funboy Three; Depeche Mode to Propaganda; and Spice Girls to Shampoo.

I would say, and you can quote me on this, Dolly Rockers are the perfect distillation of intelligence and fun for this gloom-laden world. You might call them a modern day Bananarama and it seems they have no time for fillers or soppy ballads if this in-yer-face, tongue-in-cheek theme tune is to be believed.

It's a taster for the girls' main single, which is expected to be arriving very soon, thanks to their signing to powerhouse record label Parlophone.

For the boys, my choice this week is Chris Cornell with his new single Long Gone from his new album Scream.

All the songs on the album were written by Chris and produced by Timbaland - and the album was inspired partly by Pink Floyd's classic album The Wall.

Unsurprisingly, the project has been greeted with as much incredulity as it has praise and respect - which has just helped make it a recent message board hot topic.

All 13 of the songs on Scream flow into each other, which gives it the feel of one complete work with no breaks - so basically they're drawing on the talents of both artists to do a complete re-write of the modern musical rule book.

The long player theme is also intended as a resurrection of the original album format, apparently.

In our age of a la carte downloading, this shines the light back on a piece of music that made sense as a whole - as well as in parts.

And let me tell you, I think this little part of Scream is as sizzling hot as my seaside hideaway and well worth a little listen because it is amazing.

• Scott Granger, Monday and twice monthly on Saturdays, Shanghai @ Le Monde, George Street, 0131-270 3900