This ain't semi-skimmed - it's full-fat pop.
Milk Kan's first single 'Bling Bling Baby' got a play on Eastenders. Now I haven't watched the programme for ages, but I assume it got played in either The Caff or The Queen Vic, as I can't imagine Dot Cotton rinsing out some indie-trash bounce moves while trudging her way through all those service washes in the launderette.
I reckon the people whose job it is to choose what diegetic music gets played in television shows are a bit weird anyway. I mean, think about where Eastenders is set: East London - and I mean proper East London - not the East (Central) London hellhole that I'm currently shacked-up in. Are the residents of Albert Square really going to be buying the NME every week and ordering the new Dungen album off Amazon? I don't think so. James Blunt is probably as far as they'd go into the world of contemporary music.
It's not just the BBC that's getting it all wrong though. I can remember watching certain episodes of The Bill when Reg Hollis, Tony Stamp, Tosh Lines and Burnside et al., were nosing round the Jasmine Allen estate for some stupid reason and every time they smashed in the front door of a crack den or the home of a single mother/motorbike-riding greaser, you'd always hear 'Can I Play With Madness' dribbling out of a radio. I mean a single play I can understand, but are the producers of The Bill really suggesting that if you ride a motorbike or smoke crack, you're obviously a metal fan? And why the hell did they choose such a crap song? Let's be honest, 'Can I Play With Madness' is about as metal as '1000 Miles' by The Proclaimers. How do they treat other demographics? If Derek Conway decided to throw his resources at targeting suburban crime, would you hear Dire Straits's 'Money For Nothing' blaring out of every semi-detached? You can bet your life on it.
Anyway, I digress. Milk Kan come from Souf London (now only my spiritual home) and are really rather good. A witty, affecting, romantic yet tormented love story (that predominantly broods over the push-pull bond that exists between junkie and dealer), 'Here Ya Come Again, And Again' is a proper grown-up pop song that delivers its message with a cool sophistication and intelligence that I thought Keane had killed stone dead. The forever blonde (and forever pneumatic) Dolly Parton supplies additional vocals and although the dilapidated piano and jolty chorus repeats get rather tiresome towards the end, (a fade-out is definitely required) it's still terrifically entertaining.
The celebrity taunting B-side 'I Want My MTV To Want Me' is actually better; it's faster, louder and rockier - and it's got lyrics about Lethal Weapon and Danny Glover in it. What more can I say?