Song #744: "I've Been Thinking About You" by Londonbeat

Date: Apr 13, 1991
Weeks: 1

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This is a polite little dance/pop song from the early 90s, and it's harmless enough. It's got a little bounce that you can dance to, sufficient variety to stay entertaining, and inoffensive orchestration.

I try not to rail too hard against the use of the drum kit in pop music, because honestly I think that combined with sufficient overall sound and clever editing, its sins can be overlooked. Synthesizers are harder to make work, and must be judged on a song-by-song basis. Both these elements work fine in this song. I think it's because it's a dance song, so overall it's expected to be the same throughout a lot of it, and the art is in how variety is injected. And the rest of the music works pretty well. The guitar, the synthesized bass and everything else creates a fairly full sound, with occasional breaks for impact. It never loses its intensity, and it manages to end just before its repetition might get grating.

The vocals might be the hardest part to enjoy. The singer is a weird combination of falsetto and breathy. He sounds like he's whispering most of the time, and I think that's an weird choice. It sounds like he's holding back, either because he's trying not to overpower the music or because he's not very good at singing louder. I don't like the style at all, myself. But I suppose it's not bad enough to ruin the music overall.

The lyrics are about someone starting to think about their friend in a romantic way. "I miss you baby, and I've got those feelings again." It's a decent topic for a song, but these lyrics aren't especially impressive. For one thing, what does "again" mean in that line? Has this happened before? Didn't you sort it out then? Also, the second verse confounds me. He's just confessed his feelings and then it sounds like he's also confessing that he cheated? "She was my one temptation." That sounds like he's confessing to cheating, but how did he manage to cheat in the space between the first chorus and the second verse?

My verdict: Like it. It's got its drawbacks, sure, but it's a light bit of fun dance music and it has its charm.