Jason Derulo - 'The Sky's The Limit'
Oh how embarrassing! Poor Jason!
You know what it's like when you're trying to be creative. You start off with something that seems like a really good idea, something you are sure no-one has ever thought of before. You spend ages honing it, and getting it to state where you're confident enough to start showing people what you've been up to, and what is the first thing anyone says?
"Oh, that's just like that thing someone else has already done."
Which would be irritating enough if it were not also blindingly obvious that they are right. And worse, the bits that you've added, your refinements, are not as good as the bits you've subconsciously pinched. The thing you now realise you were influenced by has proven to be immune to your twiddling, and there's now a really clear, clunky gearshift between the familiar bits and the new bits.
You'd have to be really stubborn not to go back to the drawing board after something like that.
(. It's all done with mirrors.)
In the case of this song, the verses are the verses to 'Flashdance... What A Feeling' by Irene Cara. Verses which were originally designed to pull the listener towards the dramatic vertical take-off of the chorus. They're moody, churning, and troubled, an expression of the darkness before the light, with the chorus being the light, obv.
What Jason has done is change the words, so they're now about a girl, and update the production, so it's bleepier. And then graft on an entirely different chorus: a bouncy Europop sort of a thing, which suits the high drama of that verse melody in exactly the same way that wearing a dress made out of actual dress would suit Lady Gaga.
It should work, in the way that 'Whatcha Say' worked, but then, that was a sample (Imogen Heap, as you all know), this is something more structural. It starts like a cover and then goes...elsewhere.
And yes, he does sing his own name at the beginning. But because it's set to the tune of such a familiar song, it's not unlike hearing some fella start singing about himself in the middle of a Christmas carol:
"Away in a manger, no crib for a bed
The Jaayson Deruuulo lays down his sweet head..."
It's not that it's a bad song, it's just weird to be lead towards an astonishing and familiar place of jet-propelled lift-off, only to find that the only rocket available is one of those plastic ones you put 50p in, outside the supermarket.
It's a very nice machine, just not quite space-worthy.
Download: Out now
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(Fraser McAlpine)
"The video has no concept-unless dancing, an appearance by a female dancer and a really epic laser jacket constitutes a music video concept."
Comment number 1.
At 20th Nov 2010, Rendy Woby wrote:For a moment there and at first glance I thought Mr. Jason Derulo was holding an iron and not a hat.
I wish Jason Derulo was holding an iron and not a hat. A nice one though, perhaps a 'Morphy Richards' or a 'Kenwood'.
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Comment number 2.
At 20th Nov 2010, Tom_wales91 wrote:Well rendy lets hope in time for xmas he gets a job selling irons in Argos because im on the verge of throwing my radio/tv out the window when this comes on or any other jason derulo save for his first two songs because his voice has got gradually more and more grating seriously this is awful just no no now.
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