20 February 2014
On the basis of ‘Rather Be’ and most of their subsequent singles, Clean Bandit’s artistic vision seems to be: what if every uplifting dancefloor pop hit aspired to the state of the University Challenge theme tune? This is an understandable worldview, I grant you, when your group was formed at Jesus College, Cambridge. (Alumni of Jesus College include Laurence Sterne, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Tony Wilson, Nick Hornby, and the guitarist from Katrina and the Waves.)
Elsewhere on TV, the afterlife of ‘Rather Be’ as long-time advertising jingle for the Marks & Spencer food hall has probably dulled our palate to it. That said, even without rolling back my brain to its pre-ubiquity I can be broadly positive. That introductory flourish of strings is certainly distinctive and ear-catching. I genuinely like that dramatic opening line: “We’re a thousand miles from comfort”. The song’s subsequent passage through different verses and pre-choruses is Xenomaniacal in ambition at least, if not in execution. Best of all is a career-launching performance from Glynne, who sells me urgency and feelings here which from a blander singer my buyer’s remorse would tell me are just pig-in-a-poke prefabricated melodrama. On balance, I like ‘Rather Be’; though not a starter for ten, it earns some marks for those few sparks.
