Friday, 3 June 2011

1995 Cher, Chrissie Hynde & Neneh Cherry With Eric Clapton: Love Can Build A Bridge

The 1995 Comic Relief single; on one hand the biggest relief comes from it being played straight for a change with no horrorshow misguided attempts at being funny.* But on the other, by not at least trying and instead offering up a soft rock take on a country song originally by The Judds by three disparate vocalists that nobody was dying to see gathered in the same room has a lazy, 'can't be arsed'-ness about it. Of course, the message is everything and the 'love conquers all' and grandstanding heroics of "I'd gladly walk across the desert with no shoes upon my feet, to share with you the last bite of bread I had to eat" remain and do their job, but with none of the singers trying to hog the limelight by playing to their strengths, the end result is wodge of bland sentimentality that tries to mug your wallet by bulldozing its way to your heart with a mallet and cold chisel. If it worked then fine, and good luck to all involved, but the only 'plus' I can derive from this nuclear sugar bomb is finally seeing Clapton's name attached to a number one song.


* And as the 'bonus track' had Tom Jones and Lenny Henry going at Bad Company's 'Can't Get Enough Of Your Love' in comedy style, that relief is massive.

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