Taio Cruz 'She's Like A Star'

Chart Peak: 20
YouTube

Rising UK soul star and heavily in-demand producer Taio Cruz scored a Top 20 hit with 'She's Like A Star' in August 2008... Mr Cruz is a popular man at the moment having recently spent time in the US working with Britney, Brandy and Justin Timberlake.

Plenty of scope for tenuous links here, since not only has Cruz worked with Travie McCoy, he also recorded a version of 'Umbrella' that was never released because the writers presumably wanted to hand it to a bigger star, no pun intended. He also has a significant tally of hit singles but little success on the albums market, with at least one his albums so boring they couldn't even be bothered to release the whole thing in the UK.

Possibly part of the problem is that Cruz seems too competent a musician, somebody who knows how to write and produce a hit but not how to add any character to it. This is a sort of sappy ballad that doesn't even quite have the courage to be that, with its resolutely medium tempo and repeated chipmunk-like vocal; Corrine Bailey Rae supposedly claimed that this was suspiciously similar to her own hit 'Like A Star' but he insisted this was coincidental. At one point it sounds a bit like he's singing "she makes me want to be a better man or wife" which is as close as this gets to anything interesting, though the song is really supposed to be about (imagined) parenthood.

Apparently Cruz has said he'll release a single from his next album "before 2014" so he's got about a week left.

Also appearing on: Now 69 [with Luciana], 70, 72 (with Tinchy Stryder), 74, 76 [with Ke$ha], 77, 78 [with Travie McCoy], 81, 82
Available on:

Taio Cruz featuring Luciana 'Come On Girl'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube

His third hit in consecutive years, although he spoilt the effect a little by releasing two more singles in 2008.
One problem with this record is that about 25 seconds in, it sounds a bit like he says "I just wanna turn you and me into a horse," and now I can't hear the song without thinking of Taio and his ladyfriend as a pantomime horse, like in Rentaghost.

The other big problem with this is that it's an utterly generic RnB record, distinguishable from thousands of others only by Luciana's none-more-Essex rap, which doesn't really seem to have much to do with the song until she says the "Come on boy!" at the end, by which time she sounds like she's hopping on one leg waiting to get out of the studio. And why are they shouting "Come on" at each other instead of, you know, doing stuff?

All this is rather aptly summed up by the video, which features the least exciting car chase ever shown on film, and then Luciana snogging some entirely different bloke because she probably doesn't even know what Taio Cruz looks like, such is the lack of Chemistry here.

Luciana also appears on: Now 65 (with Bodyrox)
Taio Cruz also appears on: Now 70, 71, 72 (with Tinchy Stryder), 74
Available on: Departure