(S)he'll alway's leave with your sanity

I have to thank I'm Always Right and CFB Goes Pop for alerting me to today's artist's existence. In fact, you should really read IAR's post on Rob Mills. Really, after reading that, how could I not want to find out more about Mr. Mills?

Rob Mills, or Millsy, was on the first season of Australian Idol; he placed fifth. Since I didn't follow Rob on Idol, I can't really speak to his singing ability, but singing ability, though useful, is often the least important factor in a successful song. Whether or not Rob can really sing (who knows? I don't! And he can certainly sing better than me), he has given us a great, great song.

Ms. Vanity--classic pop-rock. Really. I can't totally say why I love this song, but I do; it's all I can do to prevent myself shouting out "YOU'LL NEVER BE! WHAT SHE NEEDS!" and pumping my fist in the air whenever the chorus hits. It has an infectious enthusiasm about it; not quite the Busted or McFly bouncing-off-the-walls energy, but more a nod-your-head vibe (and maybe jumping up and down). It strikes the perfect balance between sincerity and a knowing wink at the audience. Whether the song is a joke gone surprisingly good (this is Rob Mills, so we can't really take it too seriously, but really, it's a rather good song, isn't it?) or a good song given an extra sense of fun by who's delivering it (the Idol factory produces a good song and serendipitously gives it to the right singer), I'm not sure, but however we ended up with Ms. Vanity, it is pretty much the embodiment of pop-rock fun.

At this point, I've probably talked the song up too much and you all will be disappointed with it--so, maybe you'd be better off if you forgot everything I just wrote and imagined that I described it as "a decent pop-rock song." I will recommend listening to it at high volumes, though; I think it makes it sound better.

You can buy Rob Mills's album, Up All Night, here; since it apparently didn't do that well, it should be selling for much cheaper than it is, but there's always a markup, isn't there (hence the single song today--the single was cheaper than the whole CD)?

Next up: I was planning to move on to Australian Idol's second season, but I found some tracks by the first season runnerup, so we'll probably do that instead. Unless I decide they're not any good. But, as we've seen so far (Darius? Rob Mills? Clay Aiken?), I'm relatively easy to please (there really are pop songs I don't like, I swear...), so you can probably count on some Shannon Noll tomorrow.

rob mills australian idol