Singles

The Do - On My Shoulder

Craig Broad 04/03/2009

Rating: 3.5/5

The Do are a Paris based duo, who's debut album 'A Mouthful' was released in France earlier this year and found itself gracing the top of the charts. 'On My Shoulder' is The Do's debut single within the UK as they show their eagerness to replicate the success gained in France all over Europe, but is <>i'On My Shoulder' good enough to make the challenge or will The Do be destined to be considered a popular band just within their native country?

The first thing to note within The Do, are the original raspy vocals of Olivia. It's fairly easy to be caught up with a female vocalist for the sake of looks, a visual, a niche or for them to plain and simply copy every other female artist that covers the charts currently, but within The Do, none of the above seem to be the case and vocally Olivia seems more akin to female artists like Katie Jane Garside than other more popular female artists.

That doesn't mean that everything else within The Do is substandard, 'On My Shoulder'along with the other tracks gracing this single release contain great musicianship, more eager to serve the song than to showboat and this is proven to its greatest effect within the single with its steady drumbeat and bassline keeping the song together as seconds of guitar feedback and violin pull in and out of the pop song keeping the listener interested as a story of love lost bitterly unfolds vocally before you.

It's not all perfect on this single release however, within the five tracks, both 'Playground Hustle' and 'Queen Dot Kong' are laughable jokes at best and pale when put next to 'At Last', 'The Bridge Is Broken' and the lead single 'On My Shoulder'.

The Do have all the talent and potential to be popular in the United Kingdom if they are picked up by both Radio One and NME and if they could refrain from their more childish, immature moments then The Do could be gracing mainstream music listeners all over the world very soon.