Tag: Pharrell Williams

BBC Music – God Only Knows

“It’s not Perfect Day.”

Tim: You may or may not remember Perfect Day, the Lou Reed cover that the BBC put together back in 1997 that had just about every artist in the world in it.

Tom: Remember it? I think it was the first single I bought. Charity and all.

Tim: Well, they’ve gone and done something similar with this Beach Boys track seventeen years later. This got broadcast on every channel and station last night (except Radio 3, who were busy playing Brahms) both to promote the new BBC Music thing and to raise money for Comic Relief. Shall we?

Tim: Hmm.

Tom: “Hmm” is right.

Tim: Well, I think the first question we should all be asking is what on Earth is going on with Louis and Niall’s hair –

Tom: I was going to mention that.

Tim: – but musically I’m going to say…ehhh. It’s a track, certainly, and it’s musical, for the most part it’s very enjoyable.

Tom: But it’s not Perfect Day. Am I looking back with rose-tinted spectacles? Possibly, but I can remember being absolutely blown away by Perfect Day when it first appeared on TV — here, they seem to be dazzling with ridiculous CGI rather than just good music.

Tim: The only criticism I have is that I’m really not sure the orchestral/chorus break sounds right. I get that they want to indicate that it’s about all types of music, but I think if you want to do that, make it longer.

Tom: Right! Yes! Perfect Day is busy, but it never approaches anywhere near “cacophony”. There’s not room enough to breathe in here. The instrumental break of Perfect Day was one very good solo: here, we’ve got loads of instruments and vocalists, and each one gets a pause to itself. And Brian May crowbars his trademark guitar sound in. It doesn’t work.

Tim: I’m usually the first to complain that a track’s too long, but you’re barely pushing two and a half minutes there, and I don’t think anyone’d begrudge you an extra minute to fit it together better.

Tom: Also, let’s be clear about that video: Brian Wilson has the haunted look of someone who has no idea what’s going on.

Tim: Still, gets the point across, and it’s good enough to listen to. Makes the right point about how important music is to them, and at a time when people are having a go at the BBC right, right and further right, it’s nice to have them showing off what they can do. And beg for our support, which I suppose is a more cynical and probably unfair way of looking at the lyrics. So I’ll close by saying: great idea, not quite so great execution, but good enough for me.

Saturday Flashback: Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams – Get Lucky

“A confession.”

Tom: Our reader, Isabella, writes in and notes that we never actually covered this, the song of the summer.

Tim: True.

Tom: She likes it, as – evidently – do most of the record-downloading public: “the only criticism I can find for it,” she writes, “is that it’s more of a Pharrell track produced by Daft Punk than a Daft Punk track featuring Pharrell and Nile Rodgers.”

Tom: So, a confession: I disliked it on first listen; it seemed monotonous and not particularly inspired. And then, as it became the soundtrack to everything this summer, it grew on me.

Tim: See, I never even got to the growing on me part of it. I just don’t get it – I find it, well, dull. Their last album, the Tron: Legacy soundtrack, was fantastic (and the remix album even more so), but this is just boring.

Tom: And I find myself agreeing. Because now the glow has faded; the mists of autumn aren’t far away; and I find that it’s started to irritate me again. It doesn’t go anywhere. It doesn’t do anything. It could be two minutes long or ten minutes long, it’s all the bloody same. It’s impeccably produced, incredibly catchy, but I’m just bloody sick of it.

Tim: You’re right – it doesn’t go anywhere at all. The underlying beat – that eight second, four bar loop – just doesn’t change. Throughout the entirety of the song, it’s there. I don’t want to call it cynical, but it’s perfectly mastered to get stuck in your head and never ever leave, and to keep you listening in the subconscious hope that it’ll break out of its minor-key loop and do something interesting.

Tom: Is it possible to review something properly when it’s been burned into your brain?

Tim: There’s an argument that that’s the only time when you should review something – you’ve had time to digest it, tracked your enjoyment of it, can provide a thorough description of your thoughts, as we’ve done. Unfortunately, they’re not positive thoughts.

Tom: PS: Ed Balls.

Tim: Of course.

Mika feat. Pharrell Williams – Celebrate

Tim: New one off Mika, who was last seen releasing ‘Elle Me Dit’; this was all in French, and, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, got to number one in France, number 17 in Switzerland and entirely failed to chart anywhere else. So we’re back to English for this one, and if you have 3D glasses, try wearing them. I have no idea what might happen, but the video looks like it’ll be special.

Tim: Pretty good, no?

Tom: Mmf. I’ll give it “pretty good”, but I have some issues.

Tim: Really? Because admittedly part of me’s disappointed that he’s left behind a lot of the originality of Grace Kelly and that lot, but if he’s still got tunes like this up his sleeve then I say bring them out.

Tom: Okay, let me explain my reasoning: I love the build-up to the chorus, and the middle-eight – which are basically the same thing. Not the chorus itself: but the bits immediately before “I want the whole world to celebrate”. The last chorus ain’t bad, but the others are just too sparse.

Tim: Hmm, I’d not really noticed that, but now you mention it it does seem a bit off. Not so much that it puts me off, though. One issue I do have, though, is the whole ‘featuring Pharrell Williams’ thing, because he has one sentence in the entire song. Part of me likes that, because, well, we all know my thoughts on rappers interrupting pop songs, but part of me thinks – what’s the point of him being there? He’s got a writing credit as well, and if he’s just responsible for that bit I can’t help thinking Mika’s got slightly ripped off.

Tom: Perhaps it’s to help Mika break America? Just a theory.

Tim: That would not remotely surprise me. Overall, my feeling is still that the less of Pharrell there is the better, so I’m happy. And it’s song called ‘Celebrate’, with the main line being about the whole world celebrating, so what sort of a miserable bastard wouldn’t be happy?