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Yves La Rock - 'Rise Up'

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Fraser McAlpine | 10:20 UK time, Sunday, 22 July 2007

yves_larock_100.jpgI remember reading somewhere many years ago that the secret of a good pop song is that you should feel like you've already heard it before somewhere. Not in the blatant rip-off sense, but more that in the back of your head there's this comforting sensation that tells you this is a familiar experience rather than an alien one, and that you have nothing to fear. The trick, of course, is to pull that off while still throwing sufficient original tricks into the mix to get people excited by your latest opus. I'm not 100% convinced that 'Rise Up' is successful on that score.

Upon listening to this track with my flatmates, we did have quite an entertaining game of 'Spot The Influence', with the most commonly thrown-out name being Bob Sinclar's 'Love Generation' several times at various parts of the song (this may not be entirely coincidental, since apparently Yves LaRock and Bob Sinclar are both involved in epic French DJ collective the Africanism All Stars). Frustratingly, phrases like "oh hang on, it's gone back to that song again" kept being bandied around just when we thought it was taking on a different tack. In all fairness, as songs to be influenced by go it's a valid candidate, but the sense of over-familiarity here is the problem - I know this, I danced to it in 2005, what else is there to say?

Possibly I'm overexamining what's required of a dance track - there's a definite feelgood, breezy nature to this that does inspire you to throw down on the dancefloor and bounce your hair around like you're auditioning for a shampoo advert, and I can see it being the sort of irresistible tune that really acts as the hook for your evening and gets even the surliest refusenik out of their seat.

But at the same time, you also have to judge how effective the song is in the cold, hard and decidedly soggy light of the day, and it doesn't hold up so well. It's pleasant, but ultimately forgettable and just a bit too airy and wafty to make any real impact. There's every chance it'll be a huge summer hit, but I doubt anyone will be able to hum it by September without lapsing into other songs which it also resembles.

Three starsDownload: 23rd July
CD Released:
July 30th

(Steve Perkins)

Comments

  1. At 11:26 PM on 26 Jul 2007, wrote:

    bloody mazing

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