the question this week's chart poses is would fischerspooner have gone top 10 if they didn't fuck about so much? the way "emerge" is structured always seems forced to me. i mean, yes that's a really good synth line, but they came up with a proper classic euro-pop, snap-like chorus and then made us all wait far too long for it - perhaps so it could fit some wacky stage show; perhaps so nu-electro people wouldn't get turned off by the simplicity of verse-chorus-verse (or chorus-chorus-chorus); perhaps to distance themselves from what is thought of as faceless, personality-less dance music, to show a certain refinement in case we talked about fischerspooner in the same breath as shakedown.

the nu electro scene where their music has been allowed to evolve probably has different values to the ones that fostered "at night" - i don't really know much about it beyond some token mp3s and that mix cd on the front of muzik magazine. however, i had assumed it was still about dancing: "set it off" by peaches (especially that really good remix) didn't bother with this pointless structure-tampering; it was pretty much a good dance tune with some (in the context of right now) bold cheapo-synth textures and swearing.

the mix of "emerge" that gets played on the radio seems more than a bit defeatist; all that teasing and building up to something that lasts for like a minute! it generally makes me frustrated and wound up, and very happy i've never heard it in a club, where i would undoubtedly want to punch the dj in the face unless he had a second copy to cut up, old school grandmaster flash-style. whatever, maybe it only says something about my current listening habits and my lack of patience. it's a shame though, because there aren't many songs i can think of where i'd bother to wait for the melodramatic climax if the build-up is so drawn out. "emerge" genuinely has a great chorus that everyone in the country should be singing along to and turning up when it comes on, but instead i think it failed to make a strong impact for a really dumb set of reasons, and now the oppurtunity has been wasted.