Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Second Coming Of SSS

Ok, that headline is a little dramatic but "Big" is so breathtakingly brilliant that it feels like a whole new beginning for Sneaky Sound System. Over the years, the electro-pop pioneers have been a regular feature on the blog - I still maintain that "2" is one of the best Australian albums of the noughties - but I almost lost interest with "We Love". The song isn't as jaw-droppingly awful as Rogue Traders' "Love Is A War" or Vanessa Amorosi's "Gossip" (two notable hari-kari lead singles from hit acts) but it was a generic bore with the year's most pretentious and embarrassing video. It was enough to put me off their whole third album until I randomly heard "Big" in a shop and stopped dead in my tracks.

This is the kind of euphoric electro-pop that sets Sneaky Sound System apart from the competition. Miss Connie and Black Angus deliver a sweeping dance-ballad with dreamy synths and a devastatingly gorgeous chorus. It's easily one of the best songs of 2011 and a stunning return to form. I'm just not sure how a soft and pretty love letter of a song like this will compete against the formulaic club bangers and cheap RedOne knock-offs currently clogging the airwaves. "Big" is probably too refined and sophisticated for its own good but all of a sudden I'm counting down the days until "From Here To Anywhere" drops. If the rest of the album is this good, we're in for something special. And happily, the video is also a step in the right direction. Basically Miss Connie stands on a balcony looking wistful but at least there are no anal beads this time around.

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