Where on earth can you go these days to get an honest critique of dance music? The nineties had dance music magazines with reviews of the latest vinyl in each issue – some of which were nicer than others. And then there was everyone in the record shop who had their own opinions too.
But at least you had opinions – the truth was somewhere to be found amongst them. Nowadays, if you see a track being heavily promoted in the press, it’s usually because of a huge PR effort going on from behind the scenes – everything is always a “banger” or a “slamming” tune to these people.
So it has proved with Solardo and Idris Elba’s collaboration “Big Talk”. Mixmag, in a piece done “in association with Solardo” – which hardly guarantees impartiality – describe the song as a “club-ready house banger”. We Rave You called it a “refreshing new tech house track” and Billboard brand it “extremely peak time”.
See what you think. Then we’ll tell you what we think…
The firm consensus at Ears To The House HQ is that this is, quite honestly, crap. It’s one of the worst things we’ve heard in a long time, and anyone who sees our inbox can tell you that this takes some doing.
Seriously, if something like this had been released back in the 90s, the same dance music press who are now fawning over it would have mocked the track mercilessly, along with anyone playing it. To us, it sounds like some novelty track – like the sort of thing used to advertise dodgy premium rate chat lines decades ago.
Are we right or are we wrong? You tell us…