Stylophonic - If Everybody in the World... (Prolifica)
release date: January 27 2003
"If everybody in the world loved everybody in the world, what a glorious world this could be." So goes the nursery-rhyme refrain at the start of this song from Italian DJ Stefano "Stylophonic" Fontana and quickly registers "extra, extra mature stilton" on the musical cheese-ometer.
Still, the surprise is not that the song has such a naïve, child-like musical intro. After all, Lemon Jelly are fast making a career out of using such off-kilter samples. No, the surprise is that If Everybody... never moves past this into something more, well, exciting. Instead, the loop is repeated ad nauseum while the pace fails to progress beyond sedentary.
Whilst acknowledging that it will be a hit, I cannot help thinking that there is a moral in this particular nursery rhyme. Like, if you are going to base a single around a single loop, make sure that it treads on the right side of the fine line between irritating and catchy.