Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Take Me Home

"Oh not again dear, the bed is still on fire…" At this point, I wake up. And she is not there. Damn her and all that might ever sail near her. Yes, I think the very least I deserve in life is my own little Sophie Ellis-Bextor to play beneath my pillows, nibbling my ears as I sleep, turning into a Royal Doulton figurine when friends are round to keep my secret safe. She is pretty much the perfect indie-boy pin-up. Her eyes so innocently perverted, cheeks you could slide down like a Theme Park ride and her figure, a soft white waif of glorious temptation. So lets be perfectly frank here; this girl has got a lot going for her in the image stakes. This is ever more apparent as she drops the weight of sub-intellectual indie and skips into the sequins of the disco world via an archetypal trendy-dance-tune that graced radios everywhere. She sure looks good on the dance-floor that girl.

Now, I must unfortunately look beyond the pout and prim posture and into her new tune. Take Me Home is its name. She's not stupid this girl. In the same way Andrea Corr can turn a head from a dull MOR song by just cooing "Leave me breathless…" Sophie is covering all bases too, especially that sultry one that seems to attract the young men who swear they hate dance music. But, like I said she's not stupid, and she proves this by manufacturing this strange little disco-biscuit from the Rover's selection that usually is access-for-all dance. She doesn't get trancey on us and there isn't a phat beat in aural sight. She definitely hasn't done a Madonna (circa Music) and left the producer to create the song for her. Instead, Sophie uses her talent above a funky little dance-floor shuffle. This is what I think makes this a bit of a crossover record. There are no Fragma style creamy vocals by townie bimbettes…Instead we have Sophie's sweet breathy gasp - full of indecent charm and the odd cigarette - filling the song full of melodic loveliness. It's easy, it's simple, it's just listening to her sing over a backing track and it's pretty good I think. Don't get me wrong, this is no Into The Groove or If This Ain't Love…but there's just something so brilliant about Sophie singing "Take me home" over and over again. Plus, I've seen the video, and I'm an 18-year-old lad.

But trust me, it’s a cool tune. I'm just crossing my fingers she doesn't become a gay icon or do a cover of The Locomotion.