George Michael back for the UK Red Nose Day vs The Wanted

Tomorrow is 2011's UK charity organization Comic Relief's Red Nose Day event and the musical side of it this year sees George Michael have a comeback charity single covering New Order's True faith side to side with The Wanted boys releasing their own brand new song Gold forever to help raise money.

Even though I have always liked the New Order song, I must admit there are no comparaisons between the two'ss and my choice would go to The Wanted's single for being very good, catchy and original while George Michael's one is just a lazy cover version where his voice has been so vocoderized you would bet it is to cover the fact the drugs he's under for so many years have altered his voice too much...

Released last sunday, Gold forever will surely chart next sunday in the UK Charts and I hope they'll suceed in taking the first place from Adele's reign. George's True faith doesn't stand a single chance for me, even though it is his first pop single since a long time... The boys' song starts slowly like their two first hit singles All time low and Heart vacancy but soon turns out to be a party crasher that makes you want to dance happy, the perfect sing-along feelgood song for the Comic Relief. It is I hope too the perfect return to form in the charts for the boysband whose excellent third single Lose my mind only reached a #29 placing so I guess their management hope Gold forever will do the same I just can't get enough did for the other band they managed, The Saturdays, when they released the Depeche Mode cover for the Comic Relief 2009 event.

It is the first single I think that sees all 5 Wanted boys share the lead even though Max George's beautiful voice is like always recognizable first and proeminent ; I discovered in the video Siva's got his own part and listening carefully to him, I understood his voice isn't as recognizable as the others' so maybe he's recorded some other parts for album tracks already in the end... And I though he was only there for his model's past, lol.

Their video is funny too with the boys playing with their red noses like muppets and having a pause in lip-sync on the music or kissing each others on the cheek. What I feel strange is Jay's sitting behind the four others at the end of the video : he always looks like the ugly/shy/left-over one and I only hope he won't quit the band one day as his rock vocals add a special touch to his parts.

The single's package has a Moto Blanco remix included and their version doesn't start like a ballad anymore : Gold forever is a pure club anthem in this form. Another remix was on promo, by Steve Smart & Westfunk this time.

George Micheal's single, on the opposite, even though it sounds like being electronic with his vocals vocoderized to make him sound like Cher in Believe, is a calm re-interpretation of the New Order hit from 1987. And I have to say, if George's voice had been natural, it could have sounded good like a soul/jazz version by candlelights, but with this autotuned strange vocals, True faith sounds AWFUL and rubbish ! I HATE IT even more because I had hoped George would do a cover version that would keep the original robotoc beat and make another dance charity hit like he did with Too funky. And maybe the song lacks the Bernard Summer's conversational vocal style too. All my hopes are gone now I've heard the song fully and I only hope now George Michael goes back into retirement, public bathrooms and justice courts... I'd rather listen to I want your sex one more time : his good old days' hits have not aged too bad. Not like him, me think. Can you believe this cover art ? He looks so ugly... And the picture must be heavily photoshopped...

I'd rather see Max George singing now instead or George Michael ! What about you ?

In the end, it seems I wasn't the only one thinking the Wanted single was worth it while George's wasn't as Gold forever entered at #3 in the UK charts this week, while True faith entered at #27...