Released on the 27th of June by Delicious Records
Just a brief aside: shit name. The suffix of “ettes” has long been adopted by female driven acts initially as a kind of spiritual alignment with the original ‘ettes, the Suffragettes, but more latterly as a default where inspirational naming powers fail to arrive. Here we have The Rokettes, minus the all important “c” which would make the name at least make legible sense. As things stand it’s a poor idea, badly rendered. The name, then, becomes a simulacrum for the song itself.
The woman driving this particular outfit is former solo artist Elena (pretentiously surname free), and there seems to be an inordinate amount of talk going on about her voice; variously described as “seductive” “mercurial” and “husky”. It transpires that all the talk about the voice is sheer blather as she sounds like nobody so much as Cerys Matthews’ teenage sister; juvenile and brat-like.
The single itself is so unremarkable that it makes you want to form your own band of tone deaf torsos. The verses are quiet and moody so it’s during the chorus El’s character begins to come across more vividly, as an unexpectedly aggressive vocal begins to effectively ruin the song. El’s is not an unlovely voice, but she uses it in a frustratingly vulgar manner; thoughtlessly abusing whatever natural talent she possesses.
More than this however the composition is boring/boring with a severe lack of musicianship –which wouldn’t actually be an issue if the core of the song was anything more than rotten and despised. “Burn Baby Burn” is an utterly barren piece, hookless and inelegant with some jarring hi-hat percussive work which mangles the beat of the song; so you cannot even tap your toes along in a grim appreciation of rhythm. It seems that old adage rings true once more, shit name shit band. We frankly deserve better ‘ettes than this.
Posted In Single Reviews, Jun 26 2009.
Words - Richard