So, "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley, then.........

Backslapping time. Well done us. We are fantastic.
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Postby Penk! » 17 Apr 2006, 21:30

Chris Chopping wrote:
Jeff K wrote:I still have to wonder how much staying power Crazy has. I think it'll be one of those songs that will wear out its welcome after a few months.

Which is a couple of months more than most of the songs that get the whole radio saturation treatment.


Probably another reason why the better, more interesting pop songs still get overlooked by the majority of music fans. Even if you start off liking it, it will be incredibly overplayed within a very short period of time and eventually grow tiresome. Even when I have liked pop singles of late their sheer ubiquity has ground me down and more often than not I've found myself being perfectly happy to never hear them again. Only Hey Ya!, I think, has really stood the test of time and saturation in this way, in that it's still bearable despite there having been a six-month period where you'd be guaranteed to hear it several times a day unless you barricaded yourself in your room. I think many people are put off by this kind of bombardment, they prefer to come to terms with a record in their own time and, whether it's by Outkast, James Blunt or some trendy Montreal band, when you don't want to listen to a song but still have it rammed down your throat you're automatically going to have a negative response.

I still haven't heard Crazy, though.
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Postby Jeff K » 17 Apr 2006, 21:31

kalowski wrote:I'd rather listen to Crazy than the contrived 'Ay oop it's all reet t'me' schtick of the Arctic Monkeys.


Don't get the bear started on the Artic Monkeys too! :lol:
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Postby nathan » 17 Apr 2006, 21:45

Some of you got pretty defensive there!

I love pop music but didn't really hear anything special in this song. It sounds a bit tired and old-hat, not just old. Don't know why I have to like it either.

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Postby Ranking Ted » 17 Apr 2006, 22:14

Love Vigilante wrote:It's good, but by no means great, if you ask me. No real hooks, nothing that grabs you, if you know what I mean. Nothing exceptional.

Wise man speaks the truth. It's a nice pop song, made by uber-trendy types who've gate-crashed the mainstream. Well done, guys, but its really just OK.

Anon

Postby Anon » 17 Apr 2006, 22:36

It's alright, but now it's swept up in this stupid argument.

I think the appeal to it is that it's a decent song that the mainstream wanker types like, it being on that Radio One ad helped, and therefore it's the greatest single of the year for crossover appeal. That did, however, mean we got to listen to Jo Whiley excitedly touting these fresh new talents because the Goodie Mob and all Dangermouse's great producing never happened.
Frankly meh, of course there's better songs/unknown singles out there if you're going looking for them, but in terms of combining a decent song with chart success, WOW. That's a change since the singles market is fucking shit.

That's my anglo-centric view anyway.

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Postby Penk! » 17 Apr 2006, 23:05

Mr. Zebra wrote:this stupid argument.


What would that be then?
fange wrote:One of the things i really dislike in this life is people raising their voices in German.

Anon

Postby Anon » 17 Apr 2006, 23:11

Penk is the Drug wrote:
Mr. Zebra wrote:this stupid argument.


What would that be then?


trendy vs "trendy", cool vs "cool".

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Postby Penk! » 17 Apr 2006, 23:17

Oh right, I've not read that. This thread's got a good discussion about the ways in which artists try to appeal to different audiences though.
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Postby Jeff K » 17 Apr 2006, 23:21

Penk is the Drug wrote:Oh right, I've not read that. This thread's got a good discussion about the ways in which artists try to appeal to different audiences though.


It is a great thread regardless of how you feel about the song. I'm still amazed at Penk's 61 word sentence!
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Postby Anon » 17 Apr 2006, 23:24

you probably need to read into my oversimplification a little.

i still stand by my grumpy point.

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Postby Penk! » 17 Apr 2006, 23:24

Jeff K wrote:
Penk is the Drug wrote:Oh right, I've not read that. This thread's got a good discussion about the ways in which artists try to appeal to different audiences though.


It is a great thread regardless of how you feel about the song. I'm still amazed at Penk's 61 word sentence!


In the interests of fairness I think that one was Matt's, some of mine may well have been longer but most were just too bizarre to be counted.
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Postby Owen » 17 Apr 2006, 23:29

Mr. Zebra wrote:you probably need to read into my oversimplification a little.

i still stand by my grumpy point.


indy fan?

Anon

Postby Anon » 17 Apr 2006, 23:38

Owen wrote:
Mr. Zebra wrote:you probably need to read into my oversimplification a little.

i still stand by my grumpy point.


indy fan?


barely.

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Postby Penk! » 18 Apr 2006, 00:42

I've just been to YouTube and found Crazy. As it turns out, I have heard it before, actually, but didn't know what it was or take any notice of it. It's alright, like. Sounds like someone's taken an old but decent soul song and put a mediocre beat under it.
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Postby The Write Profile » 18 Apr 2006, 00:44

Penk is the Drug wrote:
The Right Scarfie Profile wrote:Unlike, say, Jamie Lidel, it wasn't merely lip service to old forms, darting around the surface of the song until it couldn't make its mind up whether its affection was sarcastic or genuine-


I still think people have the wrong idea about the Jamie Lidell, because while there may have been an air of artifice about his singing (personally I don't mind because it's still evident he has an excellent voice), a lot of people miss the fact that he's come to it from a background in electronica and IDM and is bringing a new approach to a genre which, let's face it, had been as good as dead for quite some time.

The hint of fakery was just down to the fact that it wasn't a straight soul album anyway, it was more an attempt to modernise the genre and if that meant making it a little more fun and hip then so be it, those are just more modern traits that wouldn't really have worked in the old-school stuff.

Lidell, though, is clearly working towards an entirely different aim, evinced by the inclusion of an incredibly inventive song like The City on there. There was always the sense that he was just trying to make the music as good as he could rather than trying to make himself look as good as he could.


True, but I'm not much of a fan of Bowie's "Young Americans" (title track and "Fame" aside), either. I know these arguments always seem to, regrettably, get back to Lidell, but the impression I get from the album is that if you're updating a sound (and I really don't know whether he is, certainly no more than best R'n'B stuff that charts), you can't be so detached and flimsy about it. It's a personal thing but I (slightly) "distrust" him, he seems like a talented guy who could set his mind to anything, but decided to settle on that, for the moment. That and the fact that it doesn't really sound like the music he's trying to update as well. Which is to say that musically, Lidell has got quite a bit going for him, but it's the vocals which reveal where his head is really at.

I suppose we can forgive Scritti Politi and their ilk for deliberately deconstructing songs (and genres) because it sounds like they've followed it through to the end. The (musical) inverted quotation marks are the logical extension, rather than just slapped on out of uncertainty.

I'm not sure where this is fitting in with the general tone of discussion except that there's something to be said about total engagement with the music you're attempting to make, and that goes for inverting it, too. Not that Gnarls Barkley necessarily have it, either (musically, it's followed through, but the pair of them are pretty smug, and Cee-Lo's bland quirkiness has often annoyed me)

Penk is the Drug wrote:I've just been to YouTube and found Crazy. As it turns out, I have heard it before, actually, but didn't know what it was or take any notice of it. It's alright, like. Sounds like someone's taken an old but decent soul song and put a mediocre beat under it.


Oh I don't think it's a great song, there's certainly been stuff in the charts over the last while that has grabbed me far more, but it's an interesting start point for a whole lot of other topics. Not least the fact that it topped the charts on downloads alone. It has a nice groove, is all. And I have time for Dangermouse, on the whole (DangerDoom was very annoying and summed up the worst aspects of his clowning though. Even though he likes Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
It's before my time but I've been told, he never came back from Karangahape Road.

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Postby Penk! » 18 Apr 2006, 00:53

The Right Scarfie Profile wrote:
Penk is the Drug wrote:I've just been to YouTube and found Crazy. As it turns out, I have heard it before, actually, but didn't know what it was or take any notice of it. It's alright, like. Sounds like someone's taken an old but decent soul song and put a mediocre beat under it.


Oh I don't think it's a great song, there's certainly been stuff in the charts over the last while that has grabbed me far more, but it's an interesting start point for a whole lot of other topics. Not least the fact that it topped the charts on downloads alone. It has a nice groove, is all.


I'm just giving it another listen and I actually think the beat lets it down, it's monotonous and plodding and the music needs something that gives it a real platform, not just a Ringo stereotype with heavy bass. The tune itself has a workmanlike, dull quality as well on reflection, it sounds like a car advert facsimile of soul as much as anything else, and Cee-Lo's voice sounds empty, as though he isn't really putting himself into it properly. Seems to last for ages too.

I'm afraid I'm with the Bear on this one.
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Postby The Write Profile » 18 Apr 2006, 01:08

Penk is the Drug wrote:I'm afraid I'm with the Bear on this one.


But unlike the Bear, you had a lot of interesting things to say on this particular thread. I think youre right to an extent, it really needed to go somewhere to make a real impact- if you're going to make a song like this in an age when the big fuckoff (and often arythmic) hook is everything in pop music, it's probably best to have something that changes the mood slightly. A good grove, all the same. It's nice enough.

This where it's letdown, I think. As for Cee-Lo, I think he works better as a backing voice on Outkast records than on his own material, with some exceptions. I like it more than you do, but still think it's got nothing on Ghostface's "The Champ," which really throttles you. (Not that this is the only necessary action to take in pop music these days, just that a bit of variety in mood sometimes helps.

Then again my opinion on the song might change later, it was merely the firebrand to all the other digressions we've indulged here.

And I would like to point out to Jeff K that it was I who had a 61-word sentence, Penk's heroic efforts have been more along the lines of 100-words
Last edited by The Write Profile on 18 Apr 2006, 01:28, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby J » 18 Apr 2006, 01:27

I like it.
It took a few hearings on the radio before it won me over though.
They appeared on TOTP on Sunday, and performed it 'live' in a distinctly slower arrangement (apologies if someone's already pointed that out, but I became so underwhelmed by the some of the exchanges at the start of the thread that I forgot to click <next>.)

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Postby Carl's Son » 18 Apr 2006, 01:57

I still think the songs ok but some of the posts I've read here have kind've confirmed my own opinions.

What I still dont understand is the near hysteria around it. My housemates heard it and were texting me at work about it to see if i knew who it was, another friend was asking me to put it on a cd for her. ALL the DJs seem to really love it and it's been a massive number one from downloads alone. the reaction is out of the ordinary and i don't know how to justify that.
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Postby nathan » 18 Apr 2006, 02:11

Chris Chopping wrote:the reaction is out of the ordinary and i don't know how to justify that.

It's Springtime. Time for fornication and silly pop songs.


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