Shiny New Thing Make It All Better

A peck of power pap for you pop-pickers to ponder, peruse and probably perforate. Inspired by this from one of my favourite websites The Daily Mash

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posted by MajorDundee (16 comments total)

I started an alliterative critique and realized I didn't have a large enough "p" vocabulary.

Anyway, this rocks. Amateur pop music is one of my favorite things to listen to, because it's like what you hear on the radio but so much more textured, more real, and more authentic.
posted by ORthey at 7:36 PM on June 28, 2011

Yeah, well you know I love this, Major. This is right in the centre of my pleasure zones. There are some fantastic chord changes in the middle which I am looking forward to figuring out. I keep looking for bands who have this kind of sensibility and failing to find them.
posted by unSane at 8:35 PM on June 28, 2011

Thanks unSane - appreciate the support - I'll do a mix minus perc etc for you shortly. In our "hands across the Atlantic" imaginary band this woulld I hope be in the set along with "You and San Francisco" and various others.

Amateur pop music is one of my favorite things to listen to

I think that's called being damned with faint praise - made me lol anyway. I'm guessing ORthey that your use of the word "amateur" doesn't carry the same pejoritive associations that it does this side of the pond (i.e. amatuer = shit). The recording is undoubtedly amateur - I don't have the knowledge or equpiment to do anything more than demos. But, in my defence, I'd say that the writing here is quite a long way from amateur. This song, as unSane has spotted, features some quite sophisticated chordal inversions and quite an unconventional structure, lyrically it's not "moon - June" either. As I said though, I know from your previous comments that you're not a flamethrower, so I imagine you mean "lo-fi" or "garage band" sort of comparisions. Whis is cool. And what I wanted this to dound like.

Actually, I wanted it to sound like an outtake from Parallel Lines or a long-lost b-side for something like "Picture This". I can hear Debbie H singing this in her wonderfully sardonic, sassy way (I'm a major fan of Blondie). Hey, I can dream.....
posted by MajorDundee at 1:39 AM on June 30, 2011

"dound like"??? Actually, I kind of prefer that to "sound like". Hey man, what does your band dound like, huh??
posted by MajorDundee at 1:42 AM on June 30, 2011

Oh no, not at all! In fact, I hesitated to use the word amateur because I didn't want it mistaken for something I didn't mean - I meant it in a literal, "net getting paid" kind of way, although for all I know you did get paid for it. The word does have a similar connotation out here too and I apologize for the confusion. I mainly wanted to separate your tune from the glossy, soulless crap that wins Grammy awards.

Seriously, I have nothing but praise for this and I do hope you didn't take offense.
posted by ORthey at 2:19 PM on June 30, 2011

"net getting paid" = "not getting paid," bien sur.
posted by ORthey at 2:20 PM on June 30, 2011

No problem ORthey - I knew you didn't mean it in a nasty way. But I didn't actually get that you were using the literal meaning in terms of "unpaid".

Actually I sold this song to Warner Brothers Music last week for £5000.
posted by MajorDundee at 1:00 AM on July 1, 2011

I'm also an habitual liar. It was £7000
posted by MajorDundee at 1:01 AM on July 1, 2011

OH MAN those op op op bits are so awesome. That's the part I wait for!
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 1:11 AM on July 1, 2011

Can I save up 10 favorites and spend them all here?

I've got to say I'm a Major fan of your voice, Major. I'm not sure if DH in her prime could have sung this any better. And another vote for great writing. (I think I listened three times in a row when you posted the demo version.)
posted by mubba at 11:19 AM on July 1, 2011

Thanks very much all. I was going to offer this up to anyone else who fancied singing it. Despite your compliments mubba (many thanks btw) my vocals are not great on this. The key is too low and there are parts where it just gets lost and/or bottoms out. If someone could sing this an octave higher than me - i.e. a female vocalist or a male high tenor - it might take it somewhere else entirely. Happy to post a WAV backing track somewhere if there are any takers.
posted by MajorDundee at 11:53 AM on July 1, 2011

Here's the lyric:

Shiny New Thing Make It All Better

She told me everything was fine
She told me time was always on my side
So she lied
She said I shouldn’t run too fast
She said there’d always be a second chance
I knew it wouldn’t last

So bop, bop, bop goes the spinning top
And pop, pop, pop go I
To stop, stop, stop my tiny mind
Shiny new thing make it all better

Suddenly you realise
You’re never more than half alive
And everything you thought was wise
Other people just despise

She told me all in love is fair
She told me stories that would curl your hair
She just didn’t care
She said that word was getting out
I said that’s nothing she could brag about
There’s no doubt

So bop, bop etc

Increasingly you feel the fear
Of some disaster edging near
Where everything you now hold dear
Is just about to disappear

So bop, bop etc
posted by MajorDundee at 11:42 AM on July 3, 2011

isn't the literal meaning of 'amateur' someone who loves what they do? which seems right on the money here. this is poptastic.
posted by peterkins at 11:19 AM on July 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

You're more than fair Peterkins (as Mr Dury would have said). I have absolutely no choice but to make music - it's in my blood and bones and I would make music with anything that was lying around if I was marooned on a desert island. But I do occasionally regret that, now and again, I do come up with something that someone else - some young up-and-coming band perhaps - might just get some label interest with. There's a feeling that the music is wasted somehow, lost in the background static of all the other stuff in cyberspace or even all the other stuff on MeFiMu, which is a shame. Shrugs....
posted by MajorDundee at 12:44 PM on July 4, 2011

There's a feeling that the music is wasted somehow, lost in the background static of all the other stuff in cyberspace or even all the other stuff on MeFiMu

This is a totally fun, enjoyable song that I had a good time listening to. I hope you know it's not completely lost out there--I used the streaming MefiMu feed to find it--and that helps a bit. In any case, thank you!
posted by librarylis at 10:18 PM on July 6, 2011

Thanks librarylis!
posted by MajorDundee at 12:26 PM on July 7, 2011