Laura White – To Be Loved

“Sounds much longer than it is.”

Tom: A reader called Lukas sends this in, and says “It’s due to be on the playlist of Radio 1Xtra in October. It’s slowly making waves.”

Tim: Huh. Last time I checked, 1Xtra didn’t plan out their playlists two weeks in advance, let alone two months, but okay.

Tom: To which I say: really? I mean, I’m hardly 1Xtra’s target audience, but I thought “calm soul music” was more Radio 2’s domain. Is there a soul show I don’t know about?

Tim: Putting it out there now: I will donate £50 to the charity of Charlie Sloth’s choice if this makes it onto the 1Xtra playlist.

Tom: First of all: that’s a great voice. And musically there’s not much wrong with the track; there’s a good hook, and about as much interesting stuff as you can ever fit in when all you’ve got’s a slow piano-and-vocals song.

Tim: Can’t disagree with the great voice bit, though I should add I’m not sure about the good hook – not saying it’s bad, it might be great, but I actually got a little bit bored, and a couple of minutes in I started reading up on the 1Xtra playlist process.

Tom: But my word, it sounds much longer than it is. I thought I was about five minutes in when I switched back to the video tab and found we weren’t even three minutes in first. Now, partly that’s my lack of attention span when it comes to music, and partly the fact we don’t normally deal with slow, soulful records, but despite all that… damn, this could do with being cut down just a little.

Tim: I couldn’t agree more. I’d consider listening to it again to see if there was more than the standard two verses, two chorus, middle eight and more choruses, but I fear I’d be claiming my pension before I found out.