A couple of years ago a rapping chap by the name of Example released a half ropey/half quite good album on Mike Skinner's Beats label. It all sort of went a bit tits up but in the time since it going tits up Example has:
1. Written some pop songs.
2. Signed a new deal with Data (ie Ministry).
3. Been recording near London with Metrophonic, under the stewardship of legendary 'tunesmith' Brian Rawling. A man called Brian who was partly responsible for 'Believe' for Cher, you say? A recording studio in the countryside just outside London, you say? A team of writers and producers working on music for a succession of artists, you say? 'It will never work.'
Anyway what's happened as a result of all this isn't exactly an about turn on what Example was up to before — the last album had Kylie and The Carpenters in it, for a start — but it's a more focused pop sound with sensibilities that are a) underground b) overground c) Wombling-free. As well as working with the Rawling brigade Example's also been working with people like Pascal Gabriel, Chase & Status and Calvin Harris. Multi-producer albums often have a slightly messy and uptight feel about them; this one flows and makes sense and, having had the chance to live with some of these tracks for a few months now, we can report that some of them are VERY GOOD INDEED.
EG 1: This is the single, 'Watch The Sun Come Up'. We love this a lot.
EG 2: This is just totally amazing — 'Won't Go Quietly'.
EG 3: This one sounds like it has an Ian Dury sample in it (BUT DOES NOT) and is called 'Next 7 Hours'. It's a bit like a Five single, don't you think?
EG 4: This one, 'All Over Again', is quite jolly.
EG 5: And here is some of 'Time Machine'.
There is also a song called 'Millionaires' which has got a choir on it, sounds a bit like a Mike Skinner grannyballad and includes the soon-to-be-legendary line:
You're my Brigitte Bardot"
(Amazing.)
So 'Watch The Sun Come Up' is out in September, then the album will come out and everyone will go 'oh that's quite good, well done Example', then maybe they'll release a ballad for Christmas Number One or something. We are sure they know what they are doing.
Incidentally when we asked Example for some more information about 'Won't Go Quietly', he emailed us this.
"'Won't Go Quietly' is my take on the 80s femme fatale vibe — one of my favourite films I studied in my uni days was The Last Seduction. I wanted to take a little bit of 'Dirty Diana' and blend it with a flavour of Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and Chromeo all on top of a Justice‑y beat. Well that was my brief anyway. It's about mad mad dark women who are just such incredible sexual animals that you find it hard to leave them — even though you know they're not good for you. Hence the line: 'i should be thinking it over, instead I'm calling her over'. And when you do eventually ask them to leave they won't go without an argument. They won't go quietly."
Hence, as they say, the name.