Music: McLean – Broken
Ah YouTube. What a move by Google. What a source of great stuff.
I was installing Linux on my mate Arun’s laptop as he expressed an interest in trying it out. After install, one of the tests I performed was flash video playback in Firefox. The logical choice of course to test this is YouTube. So clicking the first video that caught my eye brought me this:
McLean then going by the name Digga self released this track in 2007. It had millions of YouTube watches but I had never heard this poignant song until this week. The song is very soulful slow jam RnB which I love. The lyrics are sad its true but anybody who has ever had a relationship which broke will find something here. Its the kind of song I would listen to right after a breakup when I would be sad…before moving on to the uplifting songs 
. Vocally Mclean has a much sharper voice than you may expect from an Soul/RnB singer and I am not sure it suits this song but in counterpoint to the soft chorus it works very well and draws you into the song more.
You may notice I am only posting the video straight from YouTube here and not the actual song as would be normal for Selective Apathy. This is because I love the video. It complements the song so well and is very professional. Having never heard of Mclean before, watching the video led me to think he was an American signed to a big label with cash to spend on a great director for this video. It reminds me of the great slow jam videos from the states. And the girl in the video is hot; always a bonus.
In fact Mclean is a U.K artist: “McLean, son of Lovers Rock legend John McLean. The Londoner’s family music pedigree is indeed indicative of his own talent – McLean’s graceful velvety voice has melted hearts ever since he sang to girls in the primary school playground.” Find him on MySpace.
Broken is out on 26th October, 2009 on Asylum / Atlantic Records and a debut album will hopefully follow with great promising tracks such as “The Great Escape” and “My Name”, a definite buy for me when it lands. 
On a closing note, I am actually going to see him live! Yeah after browsing his MySpace I realized he was playing at the ABC O2 in Glasgow on the 23rd October as part of the Brrrap Pack tour. It’s a bit unusual for hot UK artists (London) to come up to Scotland and so I had not heard of this one. Headlining are Chipmunk and Ironik. Given Chipmunk’s recent success with Oopsy Daisy, I expected this show to be a sell out and expensive. The ABC is a small venue ~1200 and tickets were only £11 each!
Definitely looking forward to this.
