Take That - 'Up All Night'
In Victorian times, while the debate raged as to whether Charles Darwin's theories about evolution were sacrilegious twaddle or a breakthrough in our understanding of the natural world, there was such a high level of interest in the kind of strange animals being brought back from all corners of the world that taxidermist con-men would try and make their own. They would take the body of an otter, stick a duck's beak on it, give it badger stripes, maybe a hedgehog bum or something similar, and then claim it as a new species, or an actual mermaid, that kind of thing.
(For a more modern example of this, check out the art-taxidermy of .)
In fact (and don't worry, Take That will be making an appearance soon), when Darwin returned from Australia with evidence of the duck-billed platypus, a lot of people accused him of jumping on the fake-unicorn bandwagon. And looking at the platypus, it's easy to see why.
I mention this because there is definitely something of the sewn-together sillybeast to this song. The verses work, the chorus works, the other bits all work, but they don't really fit together properly unless you can pull off the near-impossible feat of squinting with your ears.
(. Why don't people have street parties like this any more? WHY?)
It possibly doesn't help that this is the second Mark Owen-led single since Take That came back, and sounds like it was made from cast-off bits from the first. This is where the taxidermy thought came from - I was picturing Mark in a stained leather apron, taking a broken wing from 'Shine', threading a greasy needle, and holding it next to a dog's breakfast, with an artistic look on his face.
That said, it's more of an actual song than 'Greatest Day' was, the verses are lovely, and if the chorus doesn't quite save the day, well, it's pretty good fun for now.
*thinks* I wonder what Howard would look like with tusks?
Download: Out now
CD Released: March 2nd
(Fraser McAlpine)
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