Tom: A prerequisite for this review: go and remind yourself of Robert Miles’ fantastic One and One from 1999. It’s pure Robert Miles: catchy piano hook (this was after ‘Children’), uplifting style, into a gorgeous middle eight and final chorus. It’s even got a key change.
Tim: All of this is true.
Tom: One and One is one of my all-time favourite songs: even now, writing this, I listened to it through, just because I’d linked to it. Which is why this confused me a lot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA1Vwbok76M
Tim: Huh. That also confused me a bit, but only because for twenty seconds or so I thought you’d linked to to a Spanish guitarified version of the Big Brother theme tune.
Tom: I can’t help but admit that this is a great take on the song. Those synths in the introduction pretty much sum up the late-90s pop sound, don’t they?
Tim: And hard-hitting reality TV social experiments, yes. I like it a lot, especially after a couple of minutes when the rest of the instruments have grown up to drown out that distraction.
Tom: The completely new Spanish guitar line really, really works — as does the electric guitar in the middle eight. And those vocals, with their high rising notes, add something beyond the original.
Tim: They do, actually – I’d wouldn’t describe Maria Nayler’s vocals as being weak, but these are much more, well, meaty, probably because they’re not going for the dreaminess that was almost a feature of the original.
Tom: Don’t get me wrong: the Robert Miles version will stay in my heart. But it’s nice to know that a great track can be covered and still remain great.