I haven't really been listening to the radio for the past month or so, but last I knew the only places in the U.S. to hear Irish singer Lesley Roy's single "I'm Gone, I'm Going" were on FNMTV and The Hills. That's a bit of a shame, though, since I think it might be one of the (just the?) best straight-up pop-rock-with-blowout-chorus song that Max Martin has done in the past few years (note that that excludes "So What" with Pink, whose songs I don't really think of as being in the same category somehow anyway--it's not just the lyrics, but also the fact that there's often a more playful and less straightforward pop-rock musical element somewhere in them--and "Hot 'n Cold," which once again falls into that Pink-like category). Sure, if you've heard the singles from Kelly Clarkson's second album and the knockoffs they inspired, you won't be too surprised by the sound of "I'm Gone, I'm Going" (well, if you're like me, the odd order of the phrases in the title line may surprise you), but it's really so much more powerful and...well, less knock-off feeling than a lot of the songs of this sort we've heard recently. Actually, in a way that odd phrase order makes sense, if it forces the emphasis to be on the "going" part: this really does feel like the song you'd play as you were driving away as fast as you could down the highway. In general and from the other songs I've heard from the album, I kind of get the feeling that Lesley's giving off the vibe of a singer who'd be just about as happy working in a pub being "authentic" and her excess guitars and raspy voice can at times detract from the musical experience for me, but on "I'm Going I'm Gone," with writers and producers helping her refine that sound, she does mainstream power-pop fantastically. I could be wrong, but I think this is a song that Samuel of HotStuff Files would be enjoying if that blog was still around.To preorder Lesley Roy's album Unbeautiful, due out September 30, go here (physical).
Next up: maybe an older American song.
7 comments:
i remember getting an email from some mailing list i was signed up to about this particular singer and not paying it any attention! Shame on me. Thank goodness you are here to rectify my wrongs. This is very good indeed. And yes to your reasoning on Pink not being in this category. She seems to just defy this genre a little bit and hover on the periphery in a cool and brilliant way. And yes, I am actually still filled with self loathing for liking the Katy Perry song Hot n Cold. I like to pretend it's someone else singing it :)
So yay to Unbeautiful dropping in a couple of weeks. A day after William young actually...
I'm glad you like it, Paul! :D This e-mail--was it from an official promotions-doing list (because that'd be the first non-MTV source I'd seen any promotion of her from)?
You're most definitely right there. This is an AMAZING song. I've had it in iTunes for a while now... and it just seems to get better. And, oddly, she's actually from down the road (in the sense that if she was at home and not galavanting round the US, in less than an hour I could be standing on her frontporch screaming "I looooooooove you" if, you know, I had no dignity and a want to be arrested. I particularly love that little interlude about two-thirds of the way through the song. If you ask me, Avril Lavigne NEEDS to do a cover of this maybe with a bit of a better, more abrupt ending?
It's a shame that her album has appeared at the same time as so many brilliant albums; I want to give her more time and yet I find myself forced to move between her and Ladyhawke. Although, as I've nearly been run over twice - I kid you not - while listening to Ladyhawke quite loud on my iPod, maybe Lesley is a better option. Plus 'Psycho Bitch' is SERIOUSLY AMAZING from the 'Nanananana' bit to the 'Bet you didn't think I'd be the girl to smash your headlights' bit. And the semi-laugh two-thirds of the way through just shows how lovely she is. And - in this spurt of everything that comes to my head - I'd have to say that yeah, while she can be compared to Pink, I'd put her down as being the prototype for a solo Veronicas project. (You really hear it in 'When I Look At You').
Samuel! It's fantastic to hear from you!
You're in the U.S.?! What?! Doing what? (You don't have to answer that.) I'm dying to hear Ladyhawke's album, but I'm not letting myself listen to it until my copy arrives--which is probably going to take AGES given it's got to get here from Australia, and it just gets more and more difficult to wait.
I wasn't comparing Lesley Roy to Pink--just Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold." I actually thought the same thing about solo Veronicas!
As a P.S., I should say even my "Hot N Cold" comparison doesn't hold up, but both the Pink songs I'm excluding from that statement and "Hot N Cold" share the fact that they're not full-on rock and roller type songs, which is what I was trying to get at.
Ah - whoops on two levels there then... I'm not in the US. Sadly. (Although what with this 24/7 Obama/McCain coverage here, I'd swear I was in the 51st state (although, that'd probably be DC if we're talking electorial college) so let's say 52nd? I'm still in Ireland, and as she's Irish...
Oops--ha ha, mistake for mistake ;) I should read more closely!
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