Bob Sinclar f. Farrell Lennon - Tennessee

While the French may often be on the wrong end of the conquest stick, Frenchmen have planted the Tricouleur atop the DJ booths of clubland for much of the last decade. When a dancefloor isn't packed with movement-phobic hip-hop heads nodding in unison, Frenchmen are often manning the tables, or at least the creators of the wax that's on them. Think: Dmitri From Paris, Air, David Guetta, Daft Punk. Also, think Christophe Le Friant, nom de disque, Bob Sinclar.

Bob Sinclar's latest album, 2006's Western Dream has quietly (as much as a booming house record played at 110 decibels can in any way be considered quiet) dominated dancefloors for most of the last year. It was more than the clubs though, frankly it's pretty much only stateside where his singles "Love Generation" and "World, Hold On" didn't own the airwaves, the clubs and every set of Blaupunkts in earshot for months on end.

Sinclar (presumably) closes the campaign behind Western Dream with fourth single, and yet another excellent slab of house dubbed "Tennessee." The track is classic Sinclar, a larger than life, hands-in-the-air, disco-etched, electro-houser with his trademark...an actual SONG slipped in between the beats. Punctuated by a steel-guitar loop which may have inspired the track's name, "Tennessee" is the perfect palette cleanser for anyone who was disappointed, disgusted or otherwise dismayed that his last single was a uninspired empty re-working of C+C Music Factory's seminal "Everybody Dance Now."

Far more than that though, it's the kind of dance track that it kills me that American radio will never touch. It kills me not because American radio doesn't play dance records often, but when they do it's usually the kind of warmed over Euro-NRG that sounds like it was made in 1995 by labotomized chipmunks, yeah Cascada, we're talking smack! This is not world-changing stuff by ANY means either, but this is what REAL mainstream dance music sounds like. Judged by those standards, this is a fine exemplor.