2001 Hear'Say: The Way To Your Love

Second single from the Popstars winners, I was tempted to write a joint review of this with the previous take on 'Lady Marmalade'. It would have been convenient because I have a similar problem with the two; both songs are dogged by a series of individual voices who would all like to be first among equals. But whereas Pink and the gang were already major stars engaging in a pissing contest based around how raunchy they could be, the fame of the Hear'Say five rose without trace and with no backstory back catalogue to fill in the question marks about just exactly who these people were, they're forced to honk their own trumpets like a set of quins each vying for the most attention from mother.

A bigger difference between the two though that made me take them separately is that 'Lady Marmalade' was a quality song and virtually unsinkable; this Love' isn't. On both counts. - 'The Way To Your Love' is the predictable songcraft of a one finger exercise pop ballad riddled with stock "Fill my shadows with light" platitudes, and no matter how hard the band gurn their faux emotive 'ooh' and 'ahh's, there's no making a pigskin purse from the sow's ear of its one dimensional blandness, let alone a silk one. But in trying to do so 'The Way To Your Love' stabs with a needle hard 'never mind the quality feel the width' veneer of buffed chrome plate that makes for a listen that's as comfortable as passing razor wire through your ears and flossing. Given the hype then it's probably about as good as it needed to be in 2001, but with all the dust long since settled there's a certain sense of, once created, nobody really knew what to do with these 'Popstars' and 'The Way To Your Love' is left spinning in its own self created vacuum with no direction anywhere, least of all home.