SingStar Vol. 2
Music to our wallets.
All of which leads us into another thorny debate about song quality. Vol. 2 begins way back in the '60s with "California Dreamin'" and "Summer in the City", before bypassing the '70s almost entirely (Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing" being the only exception - the yardstick for all '70s music, obviously) and getting excited about the '80s, where it bobs along with the questionable haircuts of The Police ("Don't Stand So Close To Me"), Spandau Ballet ("TRUE") and Bobby Brown ("My Prerogative"), before sulking for a bit with Morrissey ("Suedehead") and The Cure ("Pictures of You") and going all street with Tone Loc ("Funky Cold Medina") and Young MC ("Bust A Move"). There's even space (sadly) for the horrendous "Dude Looks Like A Lady" by Aerosmith and The Proclaimers' "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", which your Dad can always sing. And does.
Then there's an amusing cross-section of the '90s via George Michael ("Freedom '90"), Shakespears Sister ("Stay"), Nirvana ("Lithium"), Blur ("Country House" - no invite for Liam and Noel), Pulp ("Common People"), Radiohead ("Street Spirit", whose rather lovely mournful groans would prove portentous), and then the ghastly and unsingable "Pretty Fly (Who A White Guy)" by The Offspring and "Sexbomb" by Tom Jones and Mousse T. So there's one for Mum as well.
Then it's into the 2000s with choices that may or may not stand the test of time. Eminem's "Without Me" is hardly his best effort, but presumably satisfies some sort of rap quota; I despise The Libertines in every form, but most notably in this "Can't Stand Me Now" guise; Gorillaz' "Dare" leads to Panic At The Disco's "But It's Better If You Do", which must have bypassed me completely; and then it goes variously XFM and Wifebeater with Gossip's "Standing In The Way Of Control", Kaiser Chiefs' "Ruby" and Maximo Park's "Our Velocity".
Three cheers, too, for The Killers' "When You Were Young", which is also in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Rock Band. That said, given that Rock Band is a 360-exclusive in Europe for the moment, this does mark the first chance to sing along to it on the PS3 (interestingly, with that one exception, there's absolutely no crossover with Rock Band, despite the two series regularly sharing artists). Finally, a perplexed word for Paul McCartney & the Frog Chorus' "We All Stand Together" - one of the most bizarre SingStar inclusions we can remember.
Whether you want to fork out for that will depend, as ever, on your approval of the track listing. The structure is the same and the new features are rather throwaway (even from the developer's perspective, judging by the paucity of duet content that supports harmonies), so you're left with the maths of whether the GBP 18 you can pre-order the solus disc for in certain quarters of the Internet is a good return. Otherwise you might as well spend it on the SingStore. From our perspective, it's probably just about there, but while there's plenty to get drunk with, there's not much else to get worked up about.
SingStar Vol. 2 is due out on 20th June in Europe.