BEST: 3) You Need Me I Don't Need You - Ed Sheeran
I linked the official video, but if you like the song I strongly recommend searching for the SBTV acoustic version, where he recreates the entire song live by himself using loop pedals. Awesome stuff.
Basically, imagine a teenage Brit acoustic guitar singer-songwriter guy performing a self-aggrandising rap. Wait, come back! Ed Sheeran was new on the scene this year in the UK, basically appearing out of nowhere with his song The A-Team, which I never really liked. It came across as very mature but at the same time a bit too bland, and a bit too boring, and I didn't get the popularity. This was his follow-up song, and I absolutely got it. Ostensibly a song about how he ditched his old manager in order to become the star he wanted to, the song takes on a whole new feel the further it gets. It's almost like a mission statement at times ("I came fast with the way I act, right / I can't last, if I'm smoking on a crack pipe / And I won't be a product of my genre / My mind will always be stronger than my songs are"), but generally it's a little ginger kid being awesome. Musically the entire song has a tremendous energy to it, helped by the constantly changing staccato beat. Video rocks too in my opinion, which is basically the song being signed.
Also, any song with the line "they say I'm up and coming like I'm ****ing in an elevator" is basically untouchably awesome.
WORST: 3) Don't Wanna Go Home - Jason Derulo
As I said before during the honourable mentions, I can't stand stupid samples in songs. Here, Derulo manages to sample two different songs that were never meant to be meshed together, in the form of Show Me Love and the freakin' Banana Song. Seriously, what the hell does he think he's doing? But see, it's clever, the original says "daylight come and me want go home" (in that classy way people got away with in the 50s), whereas Derulo's version says "daylight comes and we DON'T wanna go home"! Except it's not remotely clever, it's completely failing to understand the point of the song. The original was about tired workers wanting to go home and stop doing backbreaking labour; Derulo's is about how he likes the club. (Side note: nice to see a club song go where other club songs don't dare go and actually talk about the club itself for a change!)
Aside from being insulting to the original song, insulting to Show Me Love to presume that just sampling a former number one isn't enough to make a strong song so we need to sample a 50s classic too, and insulting to the listener for presuming noone will care, it's also just downright pathetic. Everyone enjoys a night out, but unless my nights out just suck, there's a definite point when you want to go home, and it's usually about 4am. But Derulo's escapism is so necessary that even by the time the sun rises he's still desperately hitting the club?? Where exactly is he clubbing, one of the poles? Shouldn't you be at work in a couple of hours? Or at least tending to the girl from Whatcha Say. This song is rage-inducing, Derulo comes across as a pathetic idiot, and it manages to **** over two great songs at once. Impressive.
--
James - Board 8's Resident Warm And Safe, Slipper-Wearing User
& The Cream of Porcupine Tree Fanboyism