#2 Shayne Ward, "No U Hang Up"

A lot of girls are sexy
But you know how to use it
You can keep me
Up on the phone all night
We say let's hang up on three
But we don’t ever do it
Ain't it crazy
How after all this time
We got that you hang
No, you hang up kinda love

From the moment I first heard (via YouTube) a live performance of this song, I was completely sold. Shayne Ward and I have had somewhat of an up-and-down relationship throughout the year, though.

• I was super excited for his lead single.
• At first listen, "If That's OK With You" was kind of a letdown--I'd expected a big club banger type of song.
• However, I pretty quickly found myself liking it and fighting the urge to defend it against all the people criticizing it.
• I eventually sort of stopped playing it, though, though the Moto Blanco remix did give it some life.
• I LOVED LOVED LOVED "No U Hang Up" from first listen, even in shady YouTube live performance quality and then radio rip quality--that's never changed.
• I liked "Breathless" at first...
• ...but soon found myself not thinking very much of it at all.
  
• I thought the album was a disappointment at first--it felt throwaway to me, just kind of chintzy, with almost nothing compelling me to listen to it.
• Via Paul's recommendation, I gave it another try and completely changed my opinion on it--a bunch of really solid pop songs.
• However, as time passed, I really didn't listen to it that much--surely that's not a good sign? Every time I did, I thought it was good, there wasn't anything bad (well, "Breathless" still isn't great, but it's not an awful song either), and I wondered why I didn't listen to it more often, but then I would promptly not listen to it again for ages. I had kind of a similar relationship with Jesse McCartney's last album, which I eventually totally came around to in about a year and a half. I'm pretty positive that at some point I'll really give the album a fair shake and I'll adore it, but until then, at least I've got "Damaged."

Anyway, "No U Hang Up" is a slickly produced smoochy kind of mid-tempo pop song with a groove that's pretty irresistible, a lovely little harp-like keyboard (I'm guessing) bit that you can hear at the end, little fluttery effects scattered throughout the song, and lyrics that could be too ridiculous or meet-cute-type sickly sweet for some people, but I adore them, kind of in a find-them-hilarious way, but that doesn't mean I'm not constantly fighting the urge to quote them. I love it. And that's enough.

Find it on: Breathless