Songs that piss me off - part 2 - These Words

"These Words" by Natasha Beddingfield.

*sigh*

Where do I begin?

Maybe with the music, since that part doesn't really piss me off.

I mean, the tune is fine. A light and bouncy pop tune. The musical tropes might already be a little dated for 2004, but it's fine.

Sonically strong hook, obligatory repetition with rhythmic punctuation.

A blue-eyed soul singer from down under posing as a lesser Amy Winehouse with equally less gravitas.

It's fine, I guess. 

But those lyrics.

Worst.

Love.

Song.

Ever.

Period.

And I'm aware of the intentional, redundancy of ending each word with a 'period' followed by physically typing 'period', but my annoyance that this tune passes as a love song is palpable.

Only a true narcissist could write a 'love song' and make it all about herself.

Every line drips with an unfolding tale about how hard she's struggling to write a classic. Struggling with a wastepaper basket full of attempts. How she's aspiring to write like Byron of Shelley.

At no point ... 

Not in any dang line of the song does she relate anything about her love, who they are, what things about them that she finds so endearing, nor even something objectifyingly descriptive about their appearance. Even Sir Mix A Lot gave an ode to big butts!

Maybe, perhaps, if she couldn't be bothered to write anything meaningful about her love interest, she might've written about how SHE feels about the desperate longing of being in love, or the struggle in her attempts to either woo or attract attention from her would-be paramour.

Nope.

Instead, she drones on and on about her struggle to write a good song.

It is utterly disconnected to any genuine feeling of love, or interest in any other person, or even any interest in her own feeling about some other person, or about love in general.

Eventually, even failing to write any sort of poetic verse beyond "I love you, I love you, I love you!"

***ALERT***

Mid blog ....

As I was typing this, it occurred to me to make sure she was, in fact, the song writer, and not handed a manufactured piece of claptrap from her manager and producers.

Yes. She's the songwriter, so my criticism stands. But GET THIS ...

She's one of FOUR of this song's 'composers'.

FOUR people in one room and all too narcissistic to even imagine that maybe they should write a love song about ... 

Well ...

Love! 

At least when Leonard Cohen was writing "Hallelujah", he confined the song writing process to the first verse and spun it as a mystical inspiration akin to the devastation of love in his famous breakup song. 

Well, anyway, Natasha did better in her follow-up single "Unwritten", I guess.