As I mentioned a while ago and is still true, I haven't bought the debut album from the latest South African Idols winner, Jody Williams (going just by Jody now), yet, but there was at least one song I was interested to hear on it from the clips I'd heard: "Wind It." From the clips, it sounded like it was very obviously..."inspired" by Rihanna's "Don't Stop The Music," but I love that song and a few more songs like that out in the world are no bad thing. Now I've finally heard it and it really is enjoyable (though possibly from a "better than I was expecting from this artist" perspective--it's too early to definitively judge it) and a pleasant change from a lot of the South African (even if it is Swede-penned) pop music of late.Wind It--that beat really is (at first) very "Don't Stop The Music," but "Wind It" reveals itself to have some surprisingly interesting touches throughout: the electro beat through the last minute of the song--present earlier, but only really played up there--is pretty great, for example, actually begins to pull the song away from being so much of a "Don't Stop The Music" redux, and makes you realize the song may actually be more clever than you think it is. It's a song I can see myself growing to appreciate more and more over the coming days, as well as a song that I think actually gets better as it goes along (if it starts and you're thinking it's a little too throwaway, try giving it a little longer to develop; I'd say many of the best parts are after the two minute mark, but it's built up to those). Thank goodness Jody got this for her album--if there's anything that should give her a chance of establishing herself, gaining popularity, in South Africa, it's something like this (and it is a single); I like "Kiss Of Life," but it's kind of very MOR and I imagine this song, something up-tempo, danceable, and fun (and commercial), is much more expressive of who she is.
Brief rundown of some of the best moments:
- "I know you want it/I can see it in your eyes" and the similar melody parts of the chorus
- 1:58-2:25: the "can't nobody do it like the way I do it" section (including the playing on the "wind it" line there)
- 2:41-2:56: the chorus goes all "hands over the head clapping" with the regular beat gone for one of those big building moments, with a building bubbling beat
- 3:04 on: that electro beat finally gets its moment in the sunlight and then moves into the chorus, which sounds even better when put in this context; we then get some ad-libby stuff based off the chorus
- The final 50 seconds: who knew I'd actually end up loving an instrumental fade out bit? It really is great enough to make you want to go back to the beginning of the song again and re-evaluate it
To buy Jody's debut album, Just Gonna Be Me, go here (physical).
Next up: that American song, Italian song, or boy band song.
