Up Close And Personal, the first single from South's forthcoming third album Adventures in the Underground, Journey To The Stars, sounds worrying like Freiheit.
This is, unfortunately, cruel but true. The track opens with a vocal not at all unlike the intro to the acapella nightmare Keeping the Dream Alive, or whatever it was called. Once that thought is stuck in your head, it's impossible to lodge and, of course, impossible to forgive. So even though the B-sides contain much more pleasurable sub-New Order synths (on Autumn Morning) and Madchester-esque Eastern swirls (on Something or Nothing), throughout which the breathy vocals actually start to sound quite pleasant, it's too late. The damage has already been done.
Apparently Up Close And Personal is lead singer Joel Cadbury's favourite track from the forthcoming album, which doesn't bode well. It's the worst of the three on the CD single but, as the other two aren’t anywhere near as bad, come back in a couple of weeks when I've mostly forgotten it and I may give their long player the benefit of the doubt.
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