Hits 21 - 2009 (4): Dizzee Rascal, Pixie Lott, David Guetta

Episode Date: June 16, 2024

Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to Hits 21, the show that's taking a look back at every UK #1 hit single of the 21st century - from January 2000, right through to the present day. Twitter: @Hits21UK Email: [e-mail] Vault: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5O5MHJUIQIUuf0Jv0Peb3C?si=e4057fb450f648b0 Piehole: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2FmWkwasjtq5UkjKqZLcl4

Hi there everyone and welcome back to Hits21 where me, Rob, me, Andy and me, Lizzy are looking back at every single UK number one of the two thousands. If you want to get in touch with us you can find us over on Twitter, we are at Hits21UK and you can email us too. Send it on over to Hits21podcast.gmail.com Thank you ever so much for joining us again We are currently looking back, as you must know by now, at the year 2009 This week we will be covering the period between the 24th of May and the 27th of June Last week, the poll winner On Twitter, it was a dead tie between all three songs. But on Spotify, I'm Not Alone by Calvin Harris walked away by a good 4 or 5 votes in the end. So well done to

Calvin on that. So it is time to continue and press on with this week's episode and as always it is time for some current news headlines. In Los Angeles Michael Jackson dies aged 50 after an overdose. Jackson's physician Dr. Conrad Murray had given Jackson medications to help him sleep before the singer went into cardiac arrest. Dr. Murray was later found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and he was sentenced to 4 years in prison. 228 people are killed when an Airbus plane flying from Brazil to France crashes in the

Atlantic Ocean. After suffering complications on board during a storm, the pilot had accidentally stalled the plane resulting in the crash. Investigations persisted for several years but not all of the passengers were recovered. And back home, the Labour Party suffers heavy defeats in a series of local elections. The Conservatives gain 244 councillors while Labour lost 291. Meanwhile Derbyshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire all end up under Tory control. Labour also lost heavily during the European elections around the same time.

The films to hit the top of the UK box office during this period were as follows. Night at the Museum, Battle of the Smithsonian for two weeks, Terminator Salvation for one week, The Hangover for one week, and Transformers, Revenge of the Fallen for two weeks. On Top Gear it's revealed that mystery driver The Stig is apparently legendary Formula One driver Michael Schumacher, However, it was implied shortly afterwards on the show that Schumacher was not the original Stig. British racing driver Ben Collins was eventually revealed as the man under the helmet during a court battle over his autobiography

in 2010. And in American showbiz news, Twilight Saga actors Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart confirm they are dating. Meanwhile, just hours after Michael Jackson's death, Charlie's Angels actress Farrah Fawcett dies age 62 following a short battle with cancer. Andy, the album charts, how are they doing? Well, you may be expecting, with the news of Michael Jackson's death, you may be expecting to see a lot of him

in the charts this week, but just to clarify, that happened at the very, very end of the period that that we're covering just two days before the end of this period so there'll be a lot of him next week and for now it's business as usual I've got three albums to talk to you about this week we've got first of all Eminem back at number one again with Relapse his latest his comeback record which went double platinum and was number one for two weeks Robin Lizzie you both know more about Eminem than me would you each be able to sum Real Apps up in a word? Okay.

Great they were both more sounds than words but that's good and then that's replaced for one week at number one by Sonny Side Up by Paolo Nutini which went six times platinum he was very big at the time Paolo Nutini but that only went to number one for one week and was replaced by Casabian with West Rider-Papa Lunatic Asylum good album that I bought that at the time that went number one for two weeks and went triple platinum I think those are all oddly quite reflective of the era that's a very 2009 little bunch we've got there relapse sunny side Sunnyside Up and West Rider, Purple Lunatic Asylum.

And that's your lot this week, that's all we've got. Lizzy, how were the states? Well, as I mentioned last week, Boom Boom Power by Black Eyed Peas was number one for pretty much the entirety of spring 2009. So I'll skip straight to the albums this week. First up, we have 21st Century Breakdown by Green Day. One week also got to number one in the UK. Then we have Relapse by Eminem. One week also got to

number one in the UK as you've just mentioned. Then we have Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King by Dave Matthews Band. Okay, yeah okay. I don't know what that is but okay. It spent one week at number one in the US and it got to number 59 in the UK and then we have the END by the Black Eyed Peas. Two weeks, somehow only got to number three in the UK. Really? Yeah. That is very interesting. Wow. Yeah. Well I think we've seen though, haven't we, that Boom Boom Pow, even though it isn't necessarily the end of its journey at the top of the charts, it doesn't do 12 weeks. And obviously we have I Got A Feeling and Meet Me Halfway coming up later this year, but I think if you were to compare those songs successes in the UK compared

to the US, it just missing out on number one probably just about makes sense. I wonder what was at number one instead? So I actually spent multiple weeks at number three throughout 2009 and 2010 only ever peaked at number three. For its original release it was Beats number 1 by West Rider, Purple Lunatic, Silent and Sunnyside Up. Right. Oh there we go. Yeah. Ah okay. Thank you very much Lizzy for that little bit of extra information and for your US chart report and Andy thank you for the album chart report as well. We are going to move on to our first song this week, which is this

I wake up every day is a daydream everything in my life ain't what it seems I wake up just to go back to sleep I act real shallow but I'm in too deep And all I care about is sex and violence A heavy bass line is my kind of silence Everybody says that I gotta get a grip But I let sanity give me the slip Some people think I'm bonkers But I just think I'm free And I'm just living my life, there's nothing crazy about me Some people pay for thrills, but I'll get mine for free Man I'm just living my life, there's nothing crazy about me This is Bonkers by Dizzy Rascal and Armand Van Helden. Released as the second single from his fourth studio album titled Tongue & Cheek, Bonkers

is Dizzy Rascal's twelfth single overall to be released in the UK and his second to reach number one. And it's not the last time we'll be coming to Mr Rascal on this podcast, but it is the last time we'll be coming to Armand van Helden. Bonkers went straight in at number one as a brand new entry knocking Black Eyed Peas off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for two weeks. In its first week atop the charts it sold 114,000 copies beating competition from Red by Daniel Merriweather which got to number 5, Kiss Me Through the Phone by Soulja Boy which climbed to number 8, and Fairy Tale by Alexander Rybak the Eurovision winner which got to number 10.

Eurovision winner which got to number 10. In week 2 it sold 63,000 copies beating competition from Release Me by Agnes which got to number 3 and Untouched by The Veronica's which got to number 8. When it was knocked off the top of the charts Bonkers dropped one place to number two. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 37 weeks. The song is currently officially certified two times platinum. So it is double platinum in the UK as of 2024. Lizzie, you can kick us off with bonkers. Yeah, I mean, I'm actually kind of surprised that this was played at the 2012 opening ceremony which is a lovely thing. It is a sort of celebration of Britain without sort of masking its faults which I admire it for but this is a weirdly anxiety inducing

number one single I find. It really is. Almost reminds me of something like, Ain't It Funny by Danny Brown, in that it's got this sort of relentless beat just sort of hammering away, and that Dizzy sort of raps in that style that, it's almost like, you know when someone says they're okay, but you know they're not okay, like they're just, I don't know, throwing cartons of milk on the floor,

but like, no, I'm okay, look! Like, all right. But yeah, it's very unusual very unusual I think last time we saw Dizzy Rascal it was Dance With Me and it kind of portrayed more of what we've been used to from like his early stuff where he's he's sort of easygoing but he's also very clever and witty whereas this again yeah it's sort of agitated in a way. And just to add to the weirdness, you also get that really unusual, I almost want to call it, is it like a bridge or a middle eight where you get this part that's completely disconnected from the rest of the song and then it just goes straight back into the sort of whirring riff. I didn't get on with it at the time because I kind of really

liked Dizzy Rascal but I liked his early stuff like Fix Up Look Sharp and I thought this was a bit too sort of pandering to the club market which I was very anti at the time because I was a stupid teenager. But yeah, looking back, it's part of, I think, an exciting new direction for him. And they pack a lot into that two minutes and 57 seconds. So yeah, I'd say thumbs up to this. I totally agree, by the way, about the Danny Brown comparison. And it's really interesting because I remember about 10 or 12 years ago, this is something that's just come up in my memory from what you've said, about 10 or 12 years ago, maybe a little longer ago when Danny Brown kind of first burst onto the scene

because that first album we did, The Hybrid, that didn't really go over the top but Triple X really did in 2011. And I remember reading a review of Triple X at the time. And I forget which one, but it said that Danny Brown has the most unique personality behind the microphone in rap since Dizzy Rascal. The way that his voice is just utterly unmistakable. When you listen, when Danny Brown's really in the high registers and he sounds a bit like Rook-A-Rook-A-R-Lee if anybody remembers that YouTube parody

music channel from about 15 years ago where he's right up in that top register and yeah Lizzie that is a great a great great comparison and when you were mentioning Ain't It Funny I was thinking the first thing that came to my head was the cover for the single where it's just his eyes and his face very very close up to the camera in that sort of like sunburned red lens filter on the lens. Oh yeah. And that would you know if Danny Brown did the same thing for Ain't It Funny

I would have been like yeah that makes complete sense. With Bonkers we have listened to a few songs so far in 2009 where at the time I just sort of took them as they were which is that like they always struck me as music for other people not me and that the charts were just moving away from what I liked to listen to but then you know you know, years go by, you grow up a bit and you realize that stuff like bonkers, like you were saying, Lizzie, it is so much weirder and more unusual

than I ever thought to give it credit for at the time. There were so many moments in this where I can't believe so many people went out and bought it. Like there are entire stretches where it's just harsh feedback and really heavy electronics where the song itself falls away and you've got like really extreme noises that just loop and loop and loop, especially before the first sort of drop if you will, where there's the nothing crazy about me, me, me, me, me, and it goes on for what feels like an age.

And then it snaps out of it and it you know it pushes the tension to breaking point and there's some really harsh textures threatening to take over the song but then they break and they give way to moments of relief and clarity when Dizzy comes back in and gives the kind of performance that you would really want and expect. I think Dizzy as I was kind of mentioning at the start, is one of the most characterful and singular voices behind the mic in all of rap, not just in the UK. He has a voice that is just his. He doesn't sound like anybody else. The kind of voice that gets the youth excited and frightens people who remember pre-decimal national currency. I've seen people saying that this sounds like

something that Slow Tie would release these days and I get that, like I totally get that. And a lot of his lyrics as well, Dizzy, they draw a lot of vivid images about the character that he's portraying. This all I care about is sex and violence, a heavy bass line is my kind of silence is cracking and I let sanity give me the slip. It makes Dizzy sound bassline is my kind of silence, is cracking. And I let sanity give me the slip. It makes Dizzy sound like he's the kind of guy that everyone loves when it comes to parties, but also the kind of guy that everyone tries to avoid depending on like, every other day of the week.

Like on a Saturday, great to be around. Every other day of the week, probably not. You just kind of hope he doesn't see you. The whole package is unrelenting and really overwhelming in a way that I find to be so wonderful. I think that sometimes the unrelenting and overwhelming atmosphere goes a little too far occasionally, only because, not because of it being unrelenting and overwhelming, just because I think that in those moments the song kind of loses the run of itself a little bit. The I'm back in the floor now, floor now bit. I go up and down on whether that bit specifically works for me. I

think if it was a little bit longer I would, that specific section section I would prefer its role in the song but the way that the main instrumental comes back in afterwards so suddenly just feels like it's momentarily tripped the song up a little bit. Maybe it would work if it's like I don't know you think of Duckworth by Kendrick Lamar where it sort of switches halfway through and stays there. Yeah or even funnily enough, we were talking about XXX by Danny Brown, but XXX by Kendrick as well,

where it goes out into that U2 sample for a second. The, it's not a place, that bit, where it lasts for quite a while, and then it leans on that for a little bit. And I was hoping that that was just the third beat switch, but then they pause it, and then the harsher electronics come crashing back in. I think that there are a few occasions in this where they don't quite know how to jump from one bit to the next. It feels like the song does come to a dead stop

sometimes instead of just kind of flowing in but I get that that's part of the electronic robotic appeal. I just think that it gives the song a little bit of a cut-and-paste vibe, which I sort of have a bit of an aversion towards, but only a little bit, because those moments are only fleeting. And the way that the song keeps introducing new textures, new phrasing, new dynamics, it feels fresh until the end. So I think this is great. It's a song I've had to learn to love over time. I remember being 15 years old at a 16th birthday party of someone who was in the year above me at another school in Salford and not having a good time when the DJ played bonkers. I just kind

of sat there in the corner. I was the main character in the film who just doesn't get why I don't understand the world and why isn't everybody like me? And now I can dance along with everybody else which is great because it's much better to be that person. Andy, how we feeling on bonkers? Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba. I mean, there's that and there's a doodledood. This, you know that one bit that I'm always talking about, the compliment, that one bit, that this song is like made of them.

There's about five different ones, which is one of the things I've always really liked about it in fact this gets into one of the broader points I was gonna make because there's a lot of songs over the years that I've described as well this wasn't really made for me I'm not the audience for this and this is absolutely one of them and I remember feeling that at the time it's interesting what you said Rob that you said at the time your reaction was like well this isn't really for me you know that there's that there's probably other people that this is designed for. And that's exactly how I felt about this. But it was too good for me to care about it. Really, I was just

really struck by it to the point that this dates the story where my text message tone, I set to the when I got a text, which, and great idea. And let me tell you I was nowhere near cool enough to carry that off. I did not have the street cred to be doing that. So multiple people including my then eight year old cousin used to make fun of it for me acting like I was down with the kids for having that as my text home. And it joined such ranks as I predict a riot and a clip of Christopher Eccleston saying, "'Do you mind not farting while I'm saving the world?'

That was the kind of street cred I have. Anyway, so yes, I really, really liked this at the time and I continue to love it, partly because there's just so much going on. I think you would never ever get bored with this because there's so much to one pick It feels like the amount of tracks on the desk is just endless really I think it's a good example of how sometimes quality wins out and stuff breaks out and becomes mainstream Just because it is very very well made

I just think from a Actual musicians perspective and from a music theory perspective and from a production perspective, because I was doing music tech at the time, it's just kind of a bit of a marvel to look at this and think, God, there's so many ideas here. Like there's so many different hooks, there's so many different things that don't need to be there that are just thrown in to add to the atmosphere. And I was just like, in awe of this at the time, thinking like, God, it's annoying how good he is at music. It just really kind of annoyed me. And it's not a scene I ever really got into at all. Like I knew other Dizzy Rascal songs. I was

already quite fond of Fix Up, Look Sharp and a few others like that. But this was like, this really made me pay attention. And I thought, God, like music doesn't have to be made for me, for me to recognise how good it is and for me to still engage with it and really enjoy it. So I think this song kind of played its part in sort of reducing my snobbishness and reducing my sense of boxing myself in and opening me up to other styles of music that I wouldn't particularly listen to usually, which is the biggest compliment, I can pay it really. I agree that sometimes it's level of assault

on the senses is, it threatens to get overbearing, it threatens to be too much sometimes, and so I wouldn't really give it absolute top marks because I think sometimes with my more adult sensibilities and I'm a bit like, oh, turn that racket down young man, I'm a little bit like that with it sometimes. But it's quite a minor point, to be honest. And I think in sense of context,

like if you're looking at it in terms of time and place, this is just such a breath of fresh air. It's great. Absolutely great. Love this, yeah. Andy, you mentioned in there about your text message signs and things like that. My old, cause you know know on MSN Plus you could customize the message sounds and the sound when somebody signed in and

that sort of thing. I changed the sound it made when somebody signed on to the first split second of M79 by Vampire Weekend, the harpsichord, the diddle-de-de-do, and that was it, and then that I knew that somebody would have signed in. That's how cool I was. Oh, that's cool. That is cool. Okay, so ordinarily we would move on to the second song this week, but we have to make a little detour. Bear with us, this is the first time we've done this in a few years. So Boom Boom Pow by Black Eyed Peas went back to number one, knocking Dizzy Rascal off the top of the charts. It stayed at number one for 1 more week. In its 2nd week in total

atop the charts, it sold 56,000 copies, beating competition from Fire by Kasabian, which got to number 3, and Knock You Down by Kerry Hilsen and Kanye West, which climbed to number 6. When it was knocked off the top of the charts for a second time, Boom Boom Pow dropped 1 place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts it had been inside the top 104, 38 weeks. The song is currently officially certified platinum in the UK as of 2020 for probably barring some miracle in the next few years last time will be coming to boom boom pow on this podcast and we will move on to our second song this week which is... this. There's something about the night And the way it hides all the things I like Little black butterflies Deep inside me

What would my mom do? Oh, oh, oh, oh, she know about me and you Oh, oh, oh, oh, walk, walk by day to day Oh, oh, oh, oh, feet don't be hurt this way Oh, oh, oh, oh Why should I feel ashamed Feeling guilty at the mention of your name Here we are again It's nearly perfect Mamadou – Uh Oh, Uh Oh by Pixie Lott Released as the lead single from her debut studio album titled Turn It Up, Mamadou is Pixie Lott's first single to be released

in the UK and her first to reach number 1, and this is not the last time we'll be coming to Ms. Lott on this podcast. Mamadou went straight in at number 1 as a brand new entry knocking Black Eyed Peas off the top of the charts. It stayed at number 1 for 1 week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 59,000 copies beating competition from When Love Takes Over by David Guetta and Kelly Rowland, which got to number 7. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, Mamadou dropped one place to number 2. By the time

it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 22 weeks. The song is currently officially certified gold in the UK year as you scores a number one single. We were having a little chat earlier about the first time that happened. I had a couple of near misses because Pixie Lot was born in January 1991, August, and I think Joe McElroy was born in June 1991, and Diana Vickers was born in July 1991. So I just about dodged it until we get to The Wanted and one of them was born in 1993. So there you go. So that's me too then, that's both of us here. Yeah, anyway that's the the fun part out of the way because this song is so boring.

This feels like the extreme corporate end of that wave of retro revival that started with Amy Winehouse and kind of filtered down into Duffy and then into Gabriella Chilmy and so many others. By this point it's been done to death and all it's left to do is use it to catapult yet another Italia Conti stage school type, because Lord knows we've got a shortage of those in British pop culture. I don't know, this song, there's something really sluggish about it. It feels like there's no energy, it's like, duh, duh, duh, duh, just sort of thudding you on the head of the shoe. Like that's all this song has.

And like, yeah, there's no energy to it. The actual lyrics don't inspire much. It's all just kind of route one. And I don't really know why this took off the way it did. That's about all I've got to say other than we mentioned Britannia High in passing a few episodes back which was ITV's answer to High School Musical and there's a video online of Pixie Lott auditioning for this show and the cameras focus on her quite a lot during this, clearly convinced of her star potential at her young age. But standing just behind her in a number of shots is none other than Ed Sheeran, who, as we all know, appeared as a one-off character in Game of Thrones, among other achievements. So there you go. Yes, among other achievements. Lovely. Eddard of House Sheeran, yeah. Yeah, I have not got

much to say on this except that I think it's... I don't think it's a bit crap actually, I think it's crap. It is crap. Quite bad. I think this is a very obvious attempt to pick up on the Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Gabriella Chilmy, post-World War II, blue-eyed, retro, ugh. It's not a crime in of itself, but I'm always struck by how empty this is. Oh my god, nothing happens. I gave Sex on Fire a lot of stick for just having nothing there, and this, I can't pull that up and not pull this up. So many gaps that are just wide open, so many like, un-pregnant pauses, like what's un-pregnant? Like, I'm just not convinced by Pixie Lot's voice either, doesn't have the strength of character that Amy Winehouse did, or Duffy, I think it sounds really thin against an instrumental that is clearly designed

to give her the floor. The one idea that it has is the uh oh, uh oh, but is that enough? I don't know. It's not an idea, it's barely a concept. It moves at a pace that feels more sluggish than deliberate, and it's trying to give burlesque but winds up buttons. I just can't look past how hollow it feels and how many holes it's full of. I just spend so much of this waiting for something to happen. Like I think, oh, a good bit will be coming up in a bit. They've pulled everything back to load everything in in about 20 seconds.

It's like, nope. I think Pixie Lot is much better served by a song that we have later this year, which has a lot more going on and a lot more to talk about with it. And it's a better way of achieving the aims of trying to find a new way to execute this kind of retro 60s thing in the late 2000s. I just... I was so struck by how like, nothingy this is. It's just so... It's hard to put my finger on it. It's like there's nothing to this composition. It just... Every now and again I'll think, oh this sounds a bit like Back to Black. And then I'm like, oh god, it sounds a bit like back to black what are they trying to do

like do they think this is where they're going with it I just the song this actually reminded me of was um fill me in from way back because that's about this basically the same thing about a teenager trying to sneak out and you know have this relationship kind of like under their parents noses but without anybody finding out. Parents! Yeah, parents son of in a father. But yes, I remember now. So yes, it was, it was fill me in. I don't know, I think I don't hate this with every fibre of my being, but it's just like

a big, like it's just a big sigh. That's all it kind of gets at me. It's just, oh yeah. Andy, could you provide any more than a sigh for me could i fill you in perhaps um not really i agree with both of you to the extent that i've got very little to add because yep 100 percent um pretty much every bullet point i've got yes um back to black 100 percent is uh the thing that comes to mind and not in a good way. It's just cheap and nasty, isn't it really?

I remain mystified as to why this took off as well because it did appear for a little while as though Pixie Lot might really break out, she might get really big because she had a couple of other relatively successful songs after this. But she never really did take off. And I remember at the time thinking she was just totally anonymous. I wasn't interested in her at all. And I don't mean that in any kind of personal sense. I just mean as a marketable pop star.

She had no actual identity. And I think this is probably getting to the nub of it with this because this is her big breakout single not sure if it's a debut single can't remember if he said that yeah but it is yeah and it's it's basically a pastiche of someone else and that was already a pastiche of a different era so you're really kind of just kind of going for the dregs here and it's a good year or two after that peaked I really went to bat for Mercy by Duffy when we covered that to say that actually that was better than just a pastiche, that was better than just going retro, that actually had substance to it and I really

enjoyed Mercy. This doesn't have that. Could not agree more, could not agree more with what you said about empty space and I think what would possibly help that just a little bit is if the empty space just literally lasted less time. Just turn the tempo of the whole thing up just a bit so that those pauses without any vocals or anything just go on a little bit less just so they linger in the mind a little bit longer. Just turn the tempo up a little bit. There's no momentum to this at all. And I think it doesn't help that the verses are really kind of listless and almost tuneless.

They don't vocally challenge Pixie Lot at all. I think it's really a good example of style of a substance. I don't think it's like a bad song. I get why you would think that Rob, but I don't really think it's a bad song. I think it's like me and Patainto's perfectly normal five out of ten like nothingness really. I don't think it's like technically bad. I just think it's very, very uninspired and given that you know Pixie Lott

seemed to you know be about to take off and she was a very, very kind of, I don't know, she was a very briefly big presence it seemed in show business and she was very beautiful obviously. She had this kind of old 1920s flapper vibe I seem to remember they kept trying to give her that and it just I don't know I just think this is a good example of how that's not enough that you really need more to take off than just that and I'd love that Butlins comparison I think that's a really good shout might I suggest I have to say this just thinking about it as you said that might I suggest looks like Marilyn feels like

Mulhern is probably the ultimate condemnation I would make. Like I say, I don't think it's like bad enough for the Pie Hall territory. I just think this is a good contender for the most boring song we've covered in a good long while. Yeah, it's just dull. What would my mama do? I don't care what she would do because she's boring, Pixie. She's boring. Uh oh, uh oh. That, I mean that. Oh god. We are in the uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh era now where it's like I've got a line here with no lyrics for it let's just go whoa whoa whoa oh oh oh oh oh fuck off and on that note the third and final song this week is this

It's complicated, it always is That's just the way it goes Feels like I waited so long for this I wonder if it shows Head underwater, now I can't breathe, it never felt so good Cause I can feel it coming over me I wouldn't stop it if I could When life takes over, yeah You know you can't deny When life takes over, yeah Cause something's here tonight Give me a reason, I gotta know

Do you feel it too? Can't you see me here on overload? At this time I blame you Mmm, looking out for you to hold my hand This is When Love Takes Over by David Guetta featuring Kelly Rowland. Released as the lead single from his fourth studio album titled One Love, When Love Takes Over is David Guetta's 11th single overall to be released in the UK and his first to reach number one. And it isn't the last time we'll be coming to Mr Guetta on this podcast, it is the last time we will be coming to Miss Rowland however. When Love Takes Over

first entered the UK chart at number 7, reaching number 1 during its second week on the chart, knocking Pixie Locked off top spot. It stayed at number 1 for one week. In its first and only week atop the charts, it sold 78,000 copies, beating competition from Paparazzi by Lady Gaga, which climbed to number 8, and Said It All by Take That, which climbed to number 9. When it was knocked off the top of the charts, When Love Takes Over dropped 1 place to number 2. By the time it was done on the charts, it had been inside the top 100 for 30 weeks. The song is currently officially certified 2 times platinum, so double platinum in the

UK. As of 20, 24 and E, how do we feel about David and Kelly? Yeah this is alright this. By the way, can't be the only person, surely, who just immediately thought of Blue when you said one love there, just as for Blue, with that. But yeah, this is okay. I wouldn't really go any further than okay though, to be honest, because weirdly, considering this is a genre that's kind of known for being completely pristine and polished and sounds like it was made by AI, frankly, a lot of the time, it does sound weirdly unfinished, I think, to some extent. I've said this about a couple of songs now, which is a little bit odd, but I'm going to say about this one as well, is that auto-tune might not have been a bad thing to really layer this with auto-tune because Kelly Rowland quite a lot of the time is kind of hung out to dry. She's

given a lot of very high notes like for a lot of the song that just don't quite seem to be there. There's just a little sense of... I wouldn't say out of tune but you know when you put like an old pal, when you put an old US VHS in a pal cassette player and the audio is just a little bit off and it just feels a little bit weird. There's just something about that where it doesn't quite match. And there's something wrong with that.

I don't know if it's just the quantizing or something like that, but something's just a bit strange and it makes it sound a little bit unfinished. I don't think it helps that Kelly, bless her, she can really sing. And I'm not going to criticise the vocals but a lot of the time she is in the top register really honking out those notes and that's what the song demands of her and you know so I don't really blame her for that but like she gets that it's complicated at the start and other than that most of the song is just

complicated at the start and other than that most of the song is just really really going for it and i need some levels you know i need some levels in that i don't know why this is giving me the giggles so much but i need some levels in the vocals a bit and i didn't get them with the song and it is oddly quite funny that the whole time i just imagine i just imagine it in a recording studio just sat there with a bottle of water, just bellowing out line after line like, Jesus! It's a bit like Ride on Time, you know, by Black Boxing. Imagine what that was like, for her to record that. And yeah, I think this is obviously very typical of the kind of stuff that David Guetta and

his contemporaries will do in this era, which is, you know, big beat manifesto, basically. Big beats, get high all the time, you know? And this is far from the only song that has absolutely relentless vocal assault, but it's just not for me, really, which is a bit of a shame, because I think from a production sense,

from an instrumental sense, I do actually quite enjoy a lot of these songs from this era, this David Guetta, Avicii, you know, kind of stuff. I think it's quite pleasant to listen to a lot of the time. I just think you really can't leave your singer in there as an afterthought, which it feels like Paul Kelly is a bit of an afterthought to be honest. But this is very like kind of typical of the time. There's just, there were so many songs that sounded just like this and I remember hearing this get covered so often as well

funnily enough I had Radio 1's Live Lounge I had all the CDs of Radio 1's Live Lounge I used to love them and I remember hearing a cover of this by Pixie Lott funnily enough which wasn't good but I'm a big fan of Eurovision as well and I was thinking though what does this make me think of? And it felt like a Eurovision entry, this song, because around 2010, 2011, 2012, there were a lot of songs that sounded quite a lot like this. Very kind of modern Euro pop sort of thing. There were a lot of songs that sounded like this in Eurovision which is kind of a good sort of finger on the pulse thing for like what was really popular one or two years ago

so yeah it seems to have been pretty influential at the time and I remember this being everywhere so it is doing something right and I've got to give it points for that but I just wish there was a little bit more refinement and a little bit more, you know, zero to 60 rather than screech your tyres and get straight to 60 with with poor Kelly. She really gave it everything in this and I just sort of wish she didn't have to give it everything. Lizzy, how do we feel about When Love Takes Over? For me the big problem is that it sounds like what it is which is a song that Guetta produced himself but then vocals were added to later so he introduces in sets in like 2008 and then it was kind of agreed that Kelly Rowland would add some vocals to it but it's more like it's a track that existed before Kelly Rowland had anything to do with it. And so, yeah, she does sound tacked on top of it.

And it is kind of aimless what she does. And God bless her, like she's trying her best. But what she has is just, it's sort of, it's both too much and not enough at the same time. Like Andy, I really agree with you that particularly in the chorus, she's really belting out those notes and she can't, not to say she can't hit them, but there's like certain jumps like, yeah, like it's really awkward. It does her a disservice and it exposes her as a vocalist because

all the backing track is doing is just sort of ambling by and you know just repeating itself over and over again building hype then doing the drop and then going back to square one and yeah that's that's all there kind of is to it this is what i sort of mentioned when i mentioned like the EDM boom period that would come around 2009 and would inspire a lot of quite generic stuff like this. It's not like vocalist over dance track is a new thing but it's just this kind of route one approach like it of, I like this more than Mamadou, don't get me wrong, but there's still not much left to the imagination here. And yeah, I find it a bit underwhelming ultimately.

Can I just pick you up on a few things, Lizzie, because there's a few things you said that kind of interested me there. First of all, what you said about how there are some kind of jumps that Kelly has to make here that are a little bit beyond her. That bit you mentioned that the yeah, that's like a really weird note to land on. It is. When love takes over yeah and it just lands on a really weird note there. It's like that old Bill Bailey thing where he's going through EastEnders and he points out that that lands on a really weird note there. It's like that old Bill Bailey thing where he's going through EastEnders and he points out that that lands on a really weird note. Da da da da da da da.

Do. It's a really weird note to land on. So that yeah. It's just a bit of a weird place and I don't think that's really helpful. Maybe that's what makes it sound a bit out of tune because it's a really odd note to go to. The other thing I wanted to say as well is that, yes,

it totally makes sense why Kelly's vocals don't feel natural if they were tacked on after the fact. But I remember way, way back when that you told us that that's what happened with Groove Jet. That was the story behind Groove Jet. And that sounds like a dream. Like that, I never would have known that Sophie was tacked on afterwards with Groove Jet. So it can work. It can be done properly and you can make it look natural.

So I don't think that really lets it off the hook. But that was interesting to know. That does explain it. Yeah. I am grateful to this because it has allowed me to coin the name of a little sub genre of pop, which includes, I think I'll just say it and then you'll know the type of songs but I'm gonna call it all-inclusive pop because because you know like you know the Jess Glynn song that gets played on the Jet 2 advert Oh Jim, not just on the advert, on the plane! I've been on a Jet 2 whole day and they play it on the plane all the time!

Jesus. But this is very all-inclusive to the East Coast of Spain kind of feel, or one of the Balearic Islands, if you know what I mean. It just feels like the kind of song that would follow you around one of those holidays. Yeah, yeah. It's one of the more tolerable David Guetta tracks, especially from around this period, and miles better than the absolute dreck that we have to cover later this year. This is obviously very deliberately reminiscent of a lot of 90s and early 2000s dance that I imagine David Guetta kind of cut his teeth on, you know, as a DJ in his early days and

as a producer and a writer of his own stuff, you know, it manages to sound propulsive and sleek but without rushing to the point. I think it's happy to go instrumental anyway, hard and soft, keep things varied enough. The lead piano line is a little bit distracting because of its The lead piano line is a little bit distracting because of its similarity to Clocks by Coldplay, which they really lean into when Matt Cardle covers this on the X Factor in 2010, where they do just... it is just Clocks. They take it down a few semitones and, you know, hey presto. But, you know, Coldplay, like, they don't own the 1-2-3-1-2-3-1 three one two meter So, you know, it's fine this this song is allowed to use it a lot like you two though

my problems come from Kelly Rowland, unfortunately a lot of Not necessarily her performance. It's the stuff I think it's I totally agree with you two that it isn't necessarily the performance that is the issue It's the stuff behind the performance that I think is is the main problem here where it just the verse melodies feel a bit unrehearsed like they've just kind of told her to go in and improvise a bit just like just step in the step in the booth improvise a bit and when we get unlike and then when they get to the moment where they've workshopped the big hook you know beforehand I think she's a little bit pitchy and a bit flat

but also I think the big issue and I'm glad that you two have mentioned it too as soon as you mentioned Andy something that you said my mind immediately went oh we've been looking at each other's notes again I think she's a bit too loud. Yeah she is, yeah. Not to the point where this is un-listenable but I think she feels tacked on because it just when that when love takes over yeah she doesn't quite reach it which is fine but when she has to repeat the song's title during that weird little bridge section it sounds like she's just waiting around for the chorus to come back. She's like, you can just imagine her sort of nervously looking back through the glass in the studio going, like, her eyes are sort of saying, is it the next bar?

She's on the karaoke machine at Tiger Tiger. I see her as like sort of offering it to people on the street as a kind of offering like, when love takes over, when love takes over. Like Oliver Twist, like boy for sale. When love takes over, when love takes over. Making sure that the emphasis on the title is like, in each word of the title is, when love takes over, when love takes over, when love takes over, when love takes over, when love takes over, when love takes over. When love takes over.

Oh God. But just like she's waiting around for the chorus to come back instead of making that quieter moment shine. And a lot of the time it feels like she's fighting against the instrumental a little bit but you know how you were saying Andy that it it feels like the auto-tune maybe wouldn't have been the worst idea I had the exact same thought I thought just a little bit to make her sound a little bit artificial and like she's part of the track it feels a little bit like they haven't they haven't done anything to her voice it's not always a dirty word Autotune like I think it has its place and when you are pushing singers constantly to their vocal limit which again is not a

criticism of Kelly because she is being pushed to a vocal limit here there's nothing wrong with tightening things up a bit. There's nothing wrong with that. It has its place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, and I think that, you know, they've got this instrumental with all these

effects on it and then they just haven't touched Kelly Rowland's voice and it sounds a little bit like it is an unusual mixing choice, a really unusual mixing choice, like can you imagine Believe by Cher without the can't break through? You can't imagine it without that little warble of the auto-tune. It's so perfect. My rendition of it apparently was not. No it was just kind of giving sheep a little bit, but it was very good. But that is sort of like, you know, the warbly kind of underwater sound that AutoTune provides. And it is a shame, I think, that they didn't use, they didn't have to use like full-on

AutoTune, but just something like it, just to kind of smooth the edges a little bit and have a blend into the song a little bit better it just feels a bit like she's singing over a track and she wouldn't have to shout as much yeah yeah i do think that's the difference between this and something like groove jet where a lot of time has clearly been taken to fit sophie ellis bexter into that whereas this it just feels a bit like they did it over a weekend. Yes, over the phone. Yeah. Yeah, it's just, yeah, a bit of a shame. The only thing that, the only other thing I have to mention is that several times during this song when the piano comes in, all I can think of is from a couple of years later, my mama

told me when I was young, we're all superstars. That's the only thing that comes into my head at some point in the song and other people have made the remix so I'm not mad. Alright then, that is it for this week's episode. Before we go, we're just gonna check... Lizzy. Bonkers. Mamadou. When love takes over. How are we feeling? Some people think I'm vaulting, but I just think I'm free.

Yeah, I'm gonna vault bonkers, there's nothing crazy about me. Yeah. Mamadou, uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, it's going in the pie hole. Oh, God. Mavidu, uh oh, uh oh just be insane, it wouldn't just be mad, it would in fact be bar bar bar bar bar bar bar bar. So yes, I'm vaulting bonkers, yes. As for what would my mama do, well my mama brought me up with good values, which means I will not be

vaulting it, but I will not be pie-holing it either. And as for when love takes over, it's not taken over the vault, nor is it taken over the pie-hole. Staying right where it is. Alright then, as for me, it's just gonna sit in between so that is it for this week's episode I think we're on for one of our shortest ever guys well done yes that is it thank you very much for listening. When we come back, we'll be continuing our journey through 2009. We will see you for it. Bye bye. See ya. Bye bye. Pop a praise with a wristwatch, the rocks about the size of the teapot Chris Rock's mouth Suck out the mic prototype for Adderall, your word killin' beans cause you're cuttin' with Fennel So much coke, just a sniff, need a ski lift Flip your table over if you're cuttin' with the bullshit

Nosebleed on red currants but it just blend in Slammin' pictures feelin' like my chest be sunk in Live a fast life, see me die slow I'm happy when they laugh so I try to cease them all Funny how it happen, whoever would imagine that joke's on you But say no one laughin' Ain't it funny how it happen whoever would imagine that jokes on you would say no one laughing Ain't it funny how it happens? Ain't it, ain't it funny how it happens? Ain't it, ain't it funny how it happens?