YouTube
Paul Tucker and Tunde Baiyewu are the Lighthouse Family... Theur debut album has now sold in excess of 1.5 million copies in Britain and this latest single, 'Raincloud', from their new album was a mega No. 6 success in October '97.Is there really such a thing as a "mega No. 6 hit"? 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol probably counts, actually, but that sold over a million and has spent literally years in the chart. 'Raincloud' is a respectably-sized hit and helped save the duo from being a one-album wonder, but that's the most that can be said of it commercially.
As any regular reader would know, I'm no admirer of the Lighthouse Family, even though I've discovered acts I hate even more since; yet I've ended up owning two copies of this track since it's one of the few tracks that defied the stereotype and ended up on both a Now album and a Hits album (I don't own many Hits albums, but I do happen to have New Hits 98). And of course I remember hearing it at the time too, if only on Top 40 rundowns. I'm glad I listened back to it again today though: not because I particularly enjoyed the song but because I discovered that I'd misheard a lyric 17 years ago. He's not actually singing "Let the daylight in on a bed of nails", which would at least have been a distinctive turn of phrase, but the more trite "Let the daylight in on a better day". To me that typifies the competent but empty work of the pair; like almost all their songs it strains to be uplifting but it's just too platitudinous to have any effect. Presumably that's why I haven't heard this song since about 1998 (other than when listening to compilation albums) and why nobody seemed to notice when they got back together in 2011. According to their Twitter, they've split again now so Tunde can release a covers album.
Also appearing on: Now 33, 34, 39, 40, 41, 50
Available on: The Very Best Of
No comments:
Post a Comment