Chuck HinsonI Believe In You - Kylie Minogue
June 1st 2008 09:00
We're taking it back a few years today to the year 2004. Kylie Minogue is an interesting specimen. She is the so-called 'Princess of Pop', at least for Australians anyway, yet she hasn't written a decent song in her whole career. I mean, surely Locomotion should've been a heads up for the crap that would come out of this woman. One song of hers that gets on my nerves even more than the others in I Believe In You. Released in 2004, the song never had anything from the start, but for some reason the bloody Poms and the stupid Yanks embraced it, closely followed by us deluded Aussies.
Let's get stuck into it. Melodically, this song is average. It's a good start to see that the song actually does have a melody, but it's a damn shame the woman can't sing for crap! The sound engineer did a good job covering up her out of tune singing (as they always do to pop songs), so we'll commend him for that *applause*, but that just ain't gonna cut the cheese I'm afraid. Heavy effects are employed combined with 'pitch bumping' as I like to call it to cover up any out of key notes. You hear it in the closing line when she says "I believe, I believe, I believe in you". What you'll notice with this line is that the vocals are very dry. She has little effects if any on her voice and you hear just how bad her voice actually is. What sounds like a violin is used to imitate her vocal timbre: nasal, whiny and really annoying. It can be assumed that this has been used to possibly cover up any bad notes in Kylie's now dry vocals. Now the chorus', oh man are they annoying. Simple enough, just "But I believe in you, and I believe in you". But why does she have to slur the bloody words together! The very first time I heard this song I was like "what did she just say?" and I still feel that way. The words aren't articulated very well at all. Sure, she was doing it deliberately for something different, but it really does nothing for the song. Sorry all you Kylie Minogue fans, she just isn't cutting it for me.
Alright, lyrically the song isn't all that hopeless. Sure, the lyrics are fine, BUT FOR GODS SAKE NOT ANOTHER BLOODY LOVE SONG ON THE RADIO!!!!! If i got a dollar for every love song that has made it onto the radio I'd be a billionaire! But in all honesty, if you ever take the time to read the lyrics, they are pretty sweet. But how much of them were actually her words I don't know because Jake Shears and Babydaddy from the Scissor Sisters wrote the lyrics with Kylie. So going by the trend of pop artists being crap with lyrics, I think it's safe to say that Kylie wrote the chorus'. That's about the extent of her creativity I think.
Harmonically, the song doesn't get any better. Once again, the seemingly random bass line gets a feature. Just a bass synthesiser pumping out random chordal notes to match the rest of the harmony. Not a rare thing in pop songs, but it's downright annoying. So the song opens with some strings playing their chorus part. A standard way to open a song really, in any genre, so she's done nothing wrong here. But where she does go wrong in the intro is that stupid little 'synth stab' as I like to call it. Crops up a few times in each phrase but in my opinion, the song could do without it. And finally the drums have a staggered entry. And what other beat than the standard pop beat of 'Bass snare bass snare" with quavers on the hi-hat. Wow, that's original, haven't heard that one before. Then when the singing finally comes in, the string take a rest and sound effects come in with little effect. They are mostly there just to add some atmosphere to the verse, but at times they are used to add flavour to the song by reflecting the lyrics. We don't hit some variation until the bridge, but this is pretty standard across most genres. In the bridge, the strings play a different harmony to the vocals and the drums have a rest for a little while until it is required to start the beat back up again, simply done by playing the bass drum on every beat before we get back into that stupid, repetitive bass line which has been playing for the whole bloody song! THE BASS DOESN'T HAVE TO BE A BORING INSTRUMENT FOR GODS SAKE!!! Pop artists, they're so un-creative.
Alright, so what's the final verdict I hear you asking? Well, melodically, the song is nothing too flash. It's not a very decorated melody, it's quite bland. Lyrically the song has some promise. Apart from it being yet another love song, the lyrics do have somewhat of an effect. Harmonically the song is standard pop. Synthesisers, synthesisers and more synthesisers. Not to mention the boring repetition of the same bass line and same drum pattern played consistently throughout the whole piece. So with all this in mind, I think I'm gonna have to rate this one a 4/10, mainly because of the lyrics in the verse, they're not too shabby.
'Ultimate Kylie'. The album this song is on
Let's get stuck into it. Melodically, this song is average. It's a good start to see that the song actually does have a melody, but it's a damn shame the woman can't sing for crap! The sound engineer did a good job covering up her out of tune singing (as they always do to pop songs), so we'll commend him for that *applause*, but that just ain't gonna cut the cheese I'm afraid. Heavy effects are employed combined with 'pitch bumping' as I like to call it to cover up any out of key notes. You hear it in the closing line when she says "I believe, I believe, I believe in you". What you'll notice with this line is that the vocals are very dry. She has little effects if any on her voice and you hear just how bad her voice actually is. What sounds like a violin is used to imitate her vocal timbre: nasal, whiny and really annoying. It can be assumed that this has been used to possibly cover up any bad notes in Kylie's now dry vocals. Now the chorus', oh man are they annoying. Simple enough, just "But I believe in you, and I believe in you". But why does she have to slur the bloody words together! The very first time I heard this song I was like "what did she just say?" and I still feel that way. The words aren't articulated very well at all. Sure, she was doing it deliberately for something different, but it really does nothing for the song. Sorry all you Kylie Minogue fans, she just isn't cutting it for me.
Alright, lyrically the song isn't all that hopeless. Sure, the lyrics are fine, BUT FOR GODS SAKE NOT ANOTHER BLOODY LOVE SONG ON THE RADIO!!!!! If i got a dollar for every love song that has made it onto the radio I'd be a billionaire! But in all honesty, if you ever take the time to read the lyrics, they are pretty sweet. But how much of them were actually her words I don't know because Jake Shears and Babydaddy from the Scissor Sisters wrote the lyrics with Kylie. So going by the trend of pop artists being crap with lyrics, I think it's safe to say that Kylie wrote the chorus'. That's about the extent of her creativity I think.
Kylie in her film clip
Harmonically, the song doesn't get any better. Once again, the seemingly random bass line gets a feature. Just a bass synthesiser pumping out random chordal notes to match the rest of the harmony. Not a rare thing in pop songs, but it's downright annoying. So the song opens with some strings playing their chorus part. A standard way to open a song really, in any genre, so she's done nothing wrong here. But where she does go wrong in the intro is that stupid little 'synth stab' as I like to call it. Crops up a few times in each phrase but in my opinion, the song could do without it. And finally the drums have a staggered entry. And what other beat than the standard pop beat of 'Bass snare bass snare" with quavers on the hi-hat. Wow, that's original, haven't heard that one before. Then when the singing finally comes in, the string take a rest and sound effects come in with little effect. They are mostly there just to add some atmosphere to the verse, but at times they are used to add flavour to the song by reflecting the lyrics. We don't hit some variation until the bridge, but this is pretty standard across most genres. In the bridge, the strings play a different harmony to the vocals and the drums have a rest for a little while until it is required to start the beat back up again, simply done by playing the bass drum on every beat before we get back into that stupid, repetitive bass line which has been playing for the whole bloody song! THE BASS DOESN'T HAVE TO BE A BORING INSTRUMENT FOR GODS SAKE!!! Pop artists, they're so un-creative.
Alright, so what's the final verdict I hear you asking? Well, melodically, the song is nothing too flash. It's not a very decorated melody, it's quite bland. Lyrically the song has some promise. Apart from it being yet another love song, the lyrics do have somewhat of an effect. Harmonically the song is standard pop. Synthesisers, synthesisers and more synthesisers. Not to mention the boring repetition of the same bass line and same drum pattern played consistently throughout the whole piece. So with all this in mind, I think I'm gonna have to rate this one a 4/10, mainly because of the lyrics in the verse, they're not too shabby.
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Comment by Tyronne
Sydney Fun
Melbourne DiaryStar
Comment by Johnny Come Lately
Jack's Back
Comment by Kdthestrange
Noise Voyage
But I agree, the woman can not sing for crap and it is amazing and a testament to her team that she has sustained a career for about 3 decades now.
Comment by May
Music Dime
Gimme old school Kylie anyday....liked your in depth analysis of the song though. I take it that you didn't like it that much then eh??? =P
Comment by The Rock Relic
But there's more than meets the eye on this transforming situationl Y'see, when a vocalist changes producers, watch out! 'Cause the whole SOUND can either peak or take a dive! (Believe me ... the RELIC KNOWS!!)
The prods go through the engineers' work, and have the final say as to how the trax come out.
Anyway, props to the one who had the FEVERR before me. He/she did some great writin'!
But, tell ya what ... stay tuned .... and catch the NEW FEVERR!!
See ya on the FLIP SIDE!
Chuck/The Rock Relic