Kids In Glass Houses - 'Matters At All'
Ah how useful. Only one day after my not-very-gentlemanly moan about the Alex Gardner single and its lack of oomph, here comes a song which has at least attempted to deal with some of the problems that come with trying to create something appealing.
On the face of it, it is like quite a lot of other songs in the field of music from which it comes. It's got that grumpy-rock-band-writes-anthemic-pop-song thing going on, and there is a chance that if the band aren't careful, it'll get added to that playlist of songs I mentioned yesterday. I'm thinking of calling it 'Music You Don't Have To Listen To'.
Luckily they're too canny to let my attention wander off so easily. There are things going on which demand further investigation, so put down your Scrabble board and let's get thinking...
(. Is he singing into an egg-slicer?)
For example: you might have heard this chorus before. It was, depending on your point of view, either last pressed into service by One Night Only for their song 'Just For Tonight', or My Chemical Romance for 'Welcome To The Black Parade'.
But One Night Only were never this rowdy, so there's an improvement, and therefore it's legitimate. Now you can enjoy the satisfying feeling that things are better than they were in the past.
And there's the really nice bit just before the chorus where the band throw in a few rimshots and spacey chords and suddenly it's like they're the Police (the band, this isn't another of my hilarious extended metaphors) and we're all walking on the moon. That's pretty great.
Props are also due for following a lyric as, well, lyrical as this:
"You took a draw back on a cinder hanging limp between your fingers"
With something as daft/brilliant as this:
"And we were like [aahhhh], yeah we were like [aahhhh]"
And best of all, it ends on a climax. Everyone playing at twice their normal size while Aled Phillips screams "GOODNIGHT" over and over again. Fadeouts be damned. If you're gonna rock out, you've got to finish screaming.
So, for all that this is quite a familiar sort of a song, it's the extra details that score the biggest points. By which I mean, here's one extra star for doing a good job, boys. Don't spend it all at once.
Download: Out now
CD Released: March 29th
Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Music page
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comment number 1.
At 27th Mar 2010, Yousef Ghazawi wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 2.
At 27th Mar 2010, harrythedog10 wrote:I'm probably gonna get alot of abuse for saying this but this song seriously reminds me of that Demi Lovato song that was out a while back, especially when he starts rhyming 'remember' with 'september'.
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Comment number 3.
At 28th Mar 2010, DanRhyn wrote:This song just sounds like a second-rate 30 Seconds To Mars to me, they're trying to make it epic and rock out but they just don't quite get there.
Some potential, must try harder. 2 stars.
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Comment number 4.
At 31st Mar 2010, BloggingLiam wrote:Im sure a good lawyer could get Lostprophets a law suit here. It's just 'Last summer'!!
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Comment number 5.
At 31st Mar 2010, spirit wrote:It' just the "tonight " refrain on the chorus , that lifts this song from average for me , and this reason , and with so few strong hooks in the song ,this is the reason why this song will fail to be a top 20 hit .
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Comment number 6.
At 3rd Apr 2010, BloggingLiam wrote:AGAIN tricked into thinking this was 'Last Summer' on the radio! Can somebody else listen to them back to back and tell me I'm not mad please?
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