No You Didn’t, No You Don’t

[Darren]

No You Didn’t, No You Don’t
Review

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1 Review by the Forum

“Wit, charm, sharp thinking, just three of Mr Frays many traits that we all aspire to have and use in the clever ways in which he does. We see him use all his talents in the most beneficial way when he writes songs analogous to No You Didn’t No You Don’t.” By Ant

After the first three chart eligible singles which can be described as, well, loud and much more boundary pushing than anything else we were crying out for a much more jangly and attractive that we could all relate to, everyone from loyal fans, all the way to the pope, and I think it’s safe to say the band did a very good job of it. I suppose with the song included on the album ‘St Jude’ the hype was very low and with little press exposure or promotion the single wasn’t going to chart much higher than #35, which, to be honest, is a little low considering previous charting positions. But what we need to remember is that charts mean nothing! As Liam said in an interview once, ‘westlife get loads of number ones, but we all know they are crap.’ The position does seemingly degrade the quality the single but in truth, lyrically, it may be Liam’s best work yet. Classy lines used as hooks throughout the song keep the listener going and in all honestly wanting to hear it over and over again, it is certainly a song that grows on you through more listens. Another trademark of the band interpreted in the song is the continuous guitar rhythms, maybe this did not do justice for what it was supposed to, the only down side to the song is that it may be a little to continuous and could unfortunately bore those of us who are hard to please. The single on CD also came with some rather interesting B-side covers. To start off, a cover of Lou Reed’s I’m sticking with you, which unfortunately is a song which may have set the standards to high with the original. I suppose that it is a little difficult to judge considering it was quite simply a basic cover, but Liam handled the vocals very well to my surprise having never heard him sing in such a low key, but again, it is a little hard to judge considering the quality of the original. Also accompanying the above is a cover of The Sugarbabes About you now, recorded in the Radio 1 Live Lounge. I could go on all day how much I dislike these manufactured girl groups and how they completely defy the logic behind the word group, but I won’t. It is one of those songs that you hear on your Mums radio and think “please turn it off, please!” but when you hear a band you like cover it you can certainly get to grips with what the song is about and you can get to enjoy the lyrics. Musically it is a lot more enjoyable than the original with strings in the background and of course an enjoyable guitar solo from Liam, the band certainly made the song much more attractive to me and quite probably you alike. In all, a job very well done and I must admit that enjoyed it one hell of a lot. Finally, the last B-side cover was Dream a little dream, composed by Milton Adolphus and lyrics written by Gus Kahn. It’s a shame that so many people forget who actually composed this because of so many covers, most famously by Mama Cass, but Liam hopefully made the composers proud. As I’m sticking with you, it is a very difficult cover to judge musically but Liam made a very good attempt vocally at perfecting the song. As per usual he showed us what he can do with his melodic tone of voice and he made it very enjoyable to listen to and very easy listening.

Overall difficult to give a mark out of 10, but all 4 tracks together I would give it: 7/10