Sarah McLeod – ‘Double R’

Sarah McLeod – ‘Double R’ (John Roman Remix) (mp3)

Sarah McLeod – ‘Dancing In The Dark’ (Bruce Springsteen cover)

In 2003, The Superjesus played at the Great Western Hotel in Rockhampton. I was fifteen years old, and my friends and I clung to the barrier, totally in love with frontwoman Sarah McLeod. This video is very close to how I remember it. I spent the next few months learning their entire back catalogue on guitar, the majority of which was in drop-D tuning. Riff yer heart out, etc.

That was then, this is now, I get it. I’m no longer fat with bleach blonde hair and acne and Sarah McLeod is no longer the Gen X answer to Suzi Quatro. Here’s the thing though – McLeod is a world class rock chick, with one of the best female voices in rock music. I just feel like it’s wasted on dance music that is heavy on repetition and low on hooks. She’s written with the same writers as Roisin Murphy and Justin Timberlake, but it is missing that special spark which propelled those songs up the chart.

Bruce Springsteen was right,  you can’t start a fire without a spark. A good chorus wouldn’t hurt either.

EDIT: Sarah’s publicist has just informed me:

The track that’s posted there is a remix– its not the actual radio mix of the track, so the repetitiveness / no chorus thing is because its a remix from a set of remixes currently bouncing around blogs and clubs. The radio edit is currently being tweaked and will be coming out in a week or two.

Whoops! Pardon my ignorance. I am but a simple country girl with nu-metal running through her veins. (cue lead poisoning joke)