Song of the Month: Beautiful One

"Beautiful One"
Milk & Honey Band
from the soundtrack album "Get Real" (BMG, 1999)

I don't know anything about the Milk & Honey Band, except that they're from the UK and that they've released three albums, two of which aren't easy to come by. And I don't know why I'm not running after their easy-to-find (but kind-of pricey) album, "The Secret Life Of...", because this song, which can be found on the soundtrack album for the British movie "Get Real" and (as far as I know) not on any of their albums, is some of the most phantasmagorically yummy power-pop I've ever heard.

From the opening strums of electric guitar -- which kind-of sound like a key being turned in a car's ignition, especially when the drums kick in a few seconds later and "turn it over" -- the song feels like a drive down a quiet country road in a convertible on a sunny morning. And with good reason, because if you repace the car with a bicycle, that's exactly the scene during which the song plays in the movie.

For awhile now, I've thought that this song would be a perfect fit for (and have secretly hoped it would be covered by) a band like The Click Five, or perhaps McFly. If that were to happen, I'm sure it would be a hit single. True, genuinely "happy" music with hand-claps in the chorus doesn't seem to go over well in the U.S. (and I still wonder why), but this is the kind of love song that would be impossible to hate.