Russell's Teapot - 'This is Modern Love'
The song opens with slap bass... There, I’ve lost half of you already, right? Then some flimsy beats fizz into the background, supported by FatBoy Slim style sound effects, bleeping and chirping away any breathing space the song has.
The bass is backed up a stuttering guitar lick, played in a ska style, and then Russell dribbles and drools his way into the picture, offering mundane observations and brainless lyrics. His singing style is much like David Byrne on the X-Press 2 track ‘Lazy’, and the song draws many similarities to that track as well, just without the catchy chorus and endearing fact that David Byrne is singing it.
In short, while every effort has been made to spark up this dead dog of a song, it’s only redeeming qualities is its production, which have been sheened and shined to the point of breaking but just manage to hold the song together.