Pitbull – Back In Time

And now he’s gone and done something brilliant.

Tom: So yesterday, I ranted about Pitbull. And now he’s gone and done something brilliant. I don’t know what to think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIDwgpBh0Aw

Tim: Hmm. I think…’brilliant’? Really?

Tom: I listened to this back to back several times. There are very few songs that make me do that. Anyway, this is the song for Men In Black 3. To say that he’s got a tough act to follow is an understatement: the original film brought us, well, Will Smith’s “Men In Black”. I shouldn’t like this. But I do. I think it’s more to do with the background.

Tim: There, you could be right, because it is good. Not brilliant, I think, but positive, certainly.

Tom: He’s sampling a track from 1972 called “Love Is Strange”, and oh my word is he ever improving it. He’s kept the good bits of the original – that beautiful chord progression and voice – but modernised it with a decent pace and beat. It’s not sacrilege: it’s a massive improvement.

Tim: Agreed. If you’re choosing to sample that song, this is a good way of doing it, paying it decent service. It’s far, far better than it could have been.

Tom: Now, it’s not as good as Will Smith’s original. No-one’s going to be singing this in the playgrounds. (I remember kids singing the original, or at least a dirty version of it, in my school’s playground.) But is it good? Hell yes. Even the unexpected dubstep background works for me.

Tim: Me too. God, I’m really starting to like that stuff now.

Tom: Maybe it’s because the film is ridiculous, the music is ridiculous, and Pitbull is ridiculous. He just fits. I can live with that.