Jay Sean - 'Ride It'
Ooh, in this song, Jay seems to be coming across like an Anglo Akon (Angkon, anyone?). He's got all of the smoothness, sweetness and whispery-silkiness of his randy Senegalese-American soundsake, but also brings a few little tweaks and kinks which could only come from a British mouth, making for a beguiling combination of smugness AND self-consciousness. This is gonna be ace!
Let's count the cultural differences for a second, shall we?
Well, for starters, I'm fairly sure no American R&B smooch-up would ever use the word 'feisty'. That tends to be the kind of word you only ever see in UK tabloid gossip pages or teen mags (or, to be fair, blogs about chart music). It's one of those words that means 'spirited' - like 'game', 'spunky' or even 'haughty' - which is used far more in the UK than the US. Americans would probably say 'sassy' instead. But even then, it's not really a come-on sort of a word.
Nor is 'nonchalant', come to that, although it is a little more America-friendly.
In fact, if you'll forgive a little rant a second, the English language contains a few words like this which are quite hard to say, in a way which runs contrary to the spirit of what they actually mean. For example, what benefit is there in using the words 'lisp', 'speech impediment' and 'sigmatism' 'to describe an inability to pronounce the letter 's'? These are all words that people with an s-lisp can't say properly!
And while we're at it, why is dyslexia so hard to spell?
Anyway, 'nonchalant', a word which means "cool, calm, collected, composed" (according to ), should really be a hell of a lot easier to pronounce, because nothing ruins your cool like someone saying "I'm sorry, what?" every time you use a word describing how cool you are.
Which brings me to my final point of lyrical interest. When I first heard the line "reapply your lip because it came off from the glass", I thought he was singing "reapply your lippy 'cos it came off from the glass". I was all set to wax rhapsodic about this amazing use of UK makeup slang...then I realised my mistake.
And THEN I realised that Jay is attempting to chat up a girl whose lips seem to be attached to her face with velcro, or some double-sided tape which has got a bit dusty and lost some of its stickiness. This opens up a world beyond mere cultural differences, and destroys that whole Angkon theory in one fell swoop. I mean it's hard to fixate on the use of language when someone's mouth is hanging off, right?
In summary: Decent smooch song, fella. Just remember to give her face back when you're done with it, eh?
Download: Out now
CD Released: January 21st
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comments
What has he used under it, as the tune as it's really familiar.
Thanks
-Simon
[Is it a variation on 'Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye' by Banarama/Steam? - Fraser]