Date: May 10, 1986
Weeks: 1
Here is a song that really puts synthesizers to their test. I've complained about songs from the late 70s and 80s using synthesizers as a cheap alternative to real instruments, and the songs sound cheap because of them. Songs in the late 90s and 2000s seem to have figured out that synthesizers are best used boldly, to create unique sounds that natural instruments just can't make. This song seems determined to take the good synthesizer and the bad synthesizer and mix them together in the same song.
I like a lot of what's happening in this song. The fake-string synthesizer track that leads off the song works pretty well. It creates a sort of surreal environment for the rest of the song to operate in. It's sort of like listening to a string section through an aural fog. Since the song is about London, that feels appropriate. The bass line is also pretty good. It's not kidding around about being a synthesizer, and that works to the song's benefit. I think the bass would be better if it sustained more notes, but it's okay as it is. Unfortunately, somewhere around the bridge, some odd choices get made. The synthesized chorus is never a good idea, but its gets put front and center for a bit here, and the song suffers for it. There's also a muted trumpet sound around the bridge that is just terrible. Maybe it's supposed to sound like car horns honking in traffic, but it's too good an imitation, and not musical at all.
There's also a terrible "dit-dit-dit" breaking news sound that follows every iteration of the verse that began to grate my nerves. Yes, the song probably needs some sound there, but I don't think they picked the right one. The drums also sounds very fake, and there is almost never a time when artificial drums are the right answer. The best you can hope for with a drum kit is that it'll go undetected.
Overall, there's not a lot of variety of sound in this song, either. It doesn't change very much from chorus to verse, and at the end it just sort of fades away, rather than feeling like it reached anything like a conclusion
I think I need a little metaphor help to decipher the lyrics. Now, I know that London's West End is upscale and ritzy and the East End is lower-class. So at first glance, with lines like "East End boys and West End girls," it seems the song is lyrically trying to copy Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl." But while that song seems to be about love despite social class difference, this song doesn't seem to be about that at all. Is it about casual hookups? If so, what's that first verse about? "Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables in a a restaurant in a west end town." The second verse makes vague allusion to someone selling something "How much have you got?" But is it sex? Drugs?
My best guess, based on reading the lyrics several times, is that maybe it's about the low-class elements that hide in an upper-class town. Drugs, prostitution, robbery, and so on, that lurk underneath the fancy veneer of a high-class neighborhood.
My verdict: Don't like it. There's some good stuff going on here, but the overall sound hasn't aged well and sounds cheap.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Song #845: "Wild Wild West" by Will Smith featuring Dru Hill and Kool Mo Dee
Date: Jul 24, 1999
Weeks: 1
I'm trying something a little different with the format, here. I wasn't having much luck keeping up the pace, so I'm going to try writing longer-form entries less often. Let's see how that goes.
After the 1997 success of Will Smith's theme song from "Men In Black," it seemed like a no-brainer to follow it up with a theme song to his next big summer movie. Sell records, promote the movie, everybody wins. Well, everybody except the movie-going public, perhaps, who got really excited for a movie that turned out to be pretty terrible. I'm a big sucker for sci-fi westerns myself, so I was willing to give the movie a lot of leeway. But it didn't fail to disappoint even me. I was just looking for cheesy, exciting fun, and it couldn't deliver.
The good news for our purposes is that all the fun that was missing from the movie seems to have ended up in the song. Or, more particularly, in the music video. That video tells a better story than the movie, and somehow everything that was ridiculous in the movie becomes cool in the music video. Maybe it's because the breaks to sing and dance provide just enough heightened reality to make the wacky steampunk setting cool.
This song is super-catchy. It samples from some healthy sources, and that works to its benefit. Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" provides an insanely catchy beat that provides an exciting energy that carries through the song. The chanting of the "Wild Wild West" title during the chorus comes from Kool Moe Dee's "Wild Wild West." That song is okay, but the chanting is definitely the best part. On top of those are added some catchy bass hooks and additional 70s synth tracks that come off charming, rather than dated. Stevie Wonder has a writing credit on this song, and I wonder if it's just because they used his sample or if he actually contributed some of the additional material. Either way, it really works.
I really enjoy the vocals in this song, too. Will Smith is my favorite rapper. He has an excellent sense of meter and rhyme. I won't say I always like his songs, but I always like his performance. On top of that we have singing vocals by the band Dru Hill, especially the lead singer, Sisqo. I've heard a lot about Sisqo, but I can't say I've heard any of his own songs before. He's really showing off here, but he's not really overperforming because the annoying vocal flourishes are kept to a minimum. I think if his was the only performance in the song, I would call it high-pitched and annoying. But it works here with Will Smith and the backup vocals balancing him.
I love these lyrics, too. Somebody realized that the boastfulness typical in a lot of rap songs mirrored the braggadocio of the wild west cowboy, or at least the romanticized movie image of the wild west cowboy. And that's a great idea for a song. In particular, I like the section that goes "Trying to bring down me, the champion? When y'all clowns going to see that it can't be done?" That's a lyric that could come from any rap song and would leave me scratching my head what it's about. But in a rap song from a cowboy movie? I immediately picture the bad guy's henchmen having a shootout with the hero. And I even like that the lyrics directly reference characters and plot from the movie. It helps make the song tell a story, even if the story is kind of vague.
My verdict: Like it. It's a great song on its own. Listening to it again actually got me kind of excited to watch the movie again. Fortunately I remembered it was pretty bad, so I think I can resist the temptation.
Weeks: 1
I'm trying something a little different with the format, here. I wasn't having much luck keeping up the pace, so I'm going to try writing longer-form entries less often. Let's see how that goes.
After the 1997 success of Will Smith's theme song from "Men In Black," it seemed like a no-brainer to follow it up with a theme song to his next big summer movie. Sell records, promote the movie, everybody wins. Well, everybody except the movie-going public, perhaps, who got really excited for a movie that turned out to be pretty terrible. I'm a big sucker for sci-fi westerns myself, so I was willing to give the movie a lot of leeway. But it didn't fail to disappoint even me. I was just looking for cheesy, exciting fun, and it couldn't deliver.
The good news for our purposes is that all the fun that was missing from the movie seems to have ended up in the song. Or, more particularly, in the music video. That video tells a better story than the movie, and somehow everything that was ridiculous in the movie becomes cool in the music video. Maybe it's because the breaks to sing and dance provide just enough heightened reality to make the wacky steampunk setting cool.
This song is super-catchy. It samples from some healthy sources, and that works to its benefit. Stevie Wonder's "I Wish" provides an insanely catchy beat that provides an exciting energy that carries through the song. The chanting of the "Wild Wild West" title during the chorus comes from Kool Moe Dee's "Wild Wild West." That song is okay, but the chanting is definitely the best part. On top of those are added some catchy bass hooks and additional 70s synth tracks that come off charming, rather than dated. Stevie Wonder has a writing credit on this song, and I wonder if it's just because they used his sample or if he actually contributed some of the additional material. Either way, it really works.
I really enjoy the vocals in this song, too. Will Smith is my favorite rapper. He has an excellent sense of meter and rhyme. I won't say I always like his songs, but I always like his performance. On top of that we have singing vocals by the band Dru Hill, especially the lead singer, Sisqo. I've heard a lot about Sisqo, but I can't say I've heard any of his own songs before. He's really showing off here, but he's not really overperforming because the annoying vocal flourishes are kept to a minimum. I think if his was the only performance in the song, I would call it high-pitched and annoying. But it works here with Will Smith and the backup vocals balancing him.
I love these lyrics, too. Somebody realized that the boastfulness typical in a lot of rap songs mirrored the braggadocio of the wild west cowboy, or at least the romanticized movie image of the wild west cowboy. And that's a great idea for a song. In particular, I like the section that goes "Trying to bring down me, the champion? When y'all clowns going to see that it can't be done?" That's a lyric that could come from any rap song and would leave me scratching my head what it's about. But in a rap song from a cowboy movie? I immediately picture the bad guy's henchmen having a shootout with the hero. And I even like that the lyrics directly reference characters and plot from the movie. It helps make the song tell a story, even if the story is kind of vague.
My verdict: Like it. It's a great song on its own. Listening to it again actually got me kind of excited to watch the movie again. Fortunately I remembered it was pretty bad, so I think I can resist the temptation.
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