Sam Sparro - Return to Paradise
Somewhere on the walls of my bedroom in my old house there were the lyrics to Black and Gold scrawled in felt tip pens. Sparro's debut single, in all of its sleek glittery glory, carried such an effortlessly cool aesthetic both visually (the music video took place in a limousine!) and sonically. Even without Sparro's breathy soul vocal, the track just oozed sex to me. Not necessarily a one-hit wonder for me, '21st Century Life' and 'Hot Mess' from his debut self-titled 2008 album were similarly catchy and crested the wave of synth-pop just before it flooded everywhere, and then in 2009 his feature on Basement Jaxx's Feelings Gone was just about my favourite song of the year. Maybe. Probably not. But it was up there. The Australian child actor now - although working with Adam Lambert - is faced with an alienating mainstream market. Unless he were to - I don't know - ride around Twitter calling Lady GaGa a cunt and then produce music videos ...