This post is going to be about music. That means, if recent trends are to believed, there's roughly a 50% chance this will be about Girls Aloud. Strange, seeing that I've listened to a wider variety of artists in the past year than at any other time in my life and all I can write about is one band.
Girls Aloud - "Biology"So anyway, a radio rip of "Biology" just leaked today and it's pretty weird. It sounds like four songs in one, as if someone invented a time machine and decided to indulge in some era-jumping genre tourism. Things kick off with a spiffy late 50's/early 60's piano boogie complete with commanding show tune diva power singing. It then quietly transitions into something reminiscent of the buildup in one of those old Meatloaf rock epics. While not totally oversung like those, there's a similar excessive build in drama and earnestness that borders on the ridiculous. I actually don't mind this bit, as I see it more as humored role playing rather than dumb reckless songwriting. In a bit of a swerve, instead of bursting into a huge, massive chorus like we'd expect, the song now devolves into this expressionless "let's all sing like we've been lobotomized" Bananarama pastiche. We don't actually get to a real chorus until well over halfway in (!!!) and when we do, it's Nadine belting out lines about biology and magic numbers and stuff. It's not really apparent on first listen, but there's something inexplicably odd about this song. I can't think of anything else that seems so out of left field and yet still sounds so superficially derivative. Honestly, I wouldn't fault anyone for completely dismissing "Biology" as a ramshackle, haphazard mess, because it is. But it's also ambitious, creative, and different. When all is said and done, I'm either going to see this as blinding genius or the worst non-cover Girls Aloud single ever.
(disclaimer: evaluating radio rips is always sort of jumping the gun)
