The Procession - 'Don't Let Go / Don't Hesitate' (Nude) Released 15/01/07

I'm writing this shortly after the legendary James Brown died. Within an hour I go from watching archive footage of The Godfather as he performs ‘I Got You (I Feel Good)’ whilst wearing a purple sequinned suit (a man quite clearly in his element), to listening to the debut single from The Procession, a Los Angeles trio the best thing about whom is the quite implausible fact that the two central songwriters have the first names Paul and John. So on the one hand we have a pioneer responsible for nearly everything good about popular culture as it is today (The X Factor and domestic violence excepted), and on the other a band who think stealing the riff from ‘Ticket To Ride’ whilst attempting to cover the ‘Thomas The Tank Engine’ theme tune are good ideas…it’s not difficult to work out who comes off worse. Of course comparing the two is pointless and wholly unfair. In fact The Procession are for fans of OK Go and Turin Brakes (point made), or The Magic Numbers even when they went rubbish (point hammered home); both ‘Don’t Let Go’ and ‘Don’t Hesitate’ are smug, plagiaristic sub-retro excuses for music, and now, fifteen minutes later, I’m bored. Go listen to The Feeling. Or even better, ‘Live At The Apollo’. Proof there’s no such thing as pop justice.