1. Gloria Estefan (1984)
An unusual start for this series, in that it's a slow song. Gloria Estefan's 1980's original is heartfelt and classically styled, it hits all those beats of a typical love song. And it's not terrible for it, but there's something a little overly simplistic about it; I'm always listening out for one more layer to this thing, I think the drums are a little thin on the ground for my tastes. That said, I do adore those soaring violins, it's such a beautiful sound, especially when combined with the piano beneath it, and Estefan's voice carries over it all nicely. As a first song, it could've been much worse. Props for being a different style to my other lists, too, that takes guts!
2. N.R.G. (1992)
This one is pretty cool - to go from such a slow start to this list (again, not a bad thing!) to a drum-n-bass-style mix by that band who did some music for The Transformers: The Movie. Honestly, it's kinda repetitive, and I'm not a huge fan of the overly-prominent drumline that sounds like literally every other drum-n-bass song ever. But it hits some good notes too: the early-90s sounds that make up the other half of the track, the weird, high-pitched "One, Two, Three, Four" that's peppered in there, the really early feel to the whole song, back when techno was kinda a new genre... It's a nice throwback, but I don't think it's getting very high on my list.
3. Fleetwood Mac (1999?)
Hoo boy... This one gets a question mark because technically it was recorded in 1969. In fact, Fleetwood Mac did a single version of "I Need Your love So Bad" that came out in 1968, but Google lists this as 1999 (the album was Shrine '69, which was recorded in '69 but released in 1999), so 1999 it is. And that's just the start of the weirdness with this one, because YouTube lists at least three different songs under that name: a roughly 3-minute version by Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac; a 6-minute version by the same; and an 11-minute version titled "version 1" by Fleetwood Mac. So this is a 3-in-1 test. Let's get to it:
3a. The 3-Minute Version
It's another slow song, yay! This one probably hews closest to the original blues feel of the 1955 original (Oh my gosh this is a cover of a '50s blues song! Yet more complexity!). It's slow and simple, but it doesn't have the layering problem of Gloria Estefan's, there's a lot of texture there through the violins, saxophone, and guitar in between the drumline and the plaintive vocals. It's a short song, but it's nice to listen to. If you're into blues, this one's alright.
3b. The 6-minute version
What is there to say about this one? It's twice as long as the first, but there's no real difference beyond the length - they're very similar songs. One of them is just twice as long as the other.
For some reason.
I mean, at least it has a guitar solo this time.
3c. The 11-minute version
This one is nearly four times longer than the original, surely there must be some difference, right? Well now that you mention it...
This one starts off with half a minute of dialogue between band members as they organise themselves, plus another thirty seconds of riffing and tuning before they start up properly. After a false start or two, they settle into rhythm and it can start to be properly called a song. It's cool and calm and relaxed, until presumably Peter Green stops the song at each point to harangue the other band members for being out of time or out of tune.
Honestly it's interesting just to hear the recording process, and when it gets going it gets really good, although it is still the three-minute original.
Music-wise, I can't say anything is added (in fact according to the decription, the string section is not in there). But for the insight into the band and the ability to listen to their recordings and behind-the-scenes stuff, I'd say that gives it an edge over the other two.
4. Sol feat. Ray Dalton (2012)
And from there we leap thirteen years - at least - into the future, with Sol's take on the name "Need your Love". It's a plinky-plonky guitar rhythm in the beginning, something a little bit homely and personal that starts to feel more advanced and grown up as the layers quickly build. Drumbeats, vocals, backing vocals, it gets bigger as it goes on and it feels more resolved, more proper, more real while still keeping itself grounded around that guitar melody. Alright, I like this one: the rap vocals sound good and mix well with the drumbeats, it has a sort of Architecture in Helsinki feel, but more cohesive. It's a hopeful song, and it's technically accomplished; I can get behind this.
5. Temper Trap (2012)
Hot on the heels of Sol's entry, in early 2012 is the Temper Trap. The singers of "Sweet Disposition" bring us back to traditional pop roots with their version of "Need your Love", electric guitars blazing, heavy on the cymbal crashes, it's shouty and loud and exciting, but it has those moments where it allows that Temper Trap sound to come through with the high pitches and electronic sounds gettting their points to dominate and make it a more unique sound.
Of the songs I've heard from here so far, it's not my favourite. But it's also not terrible. It's kinda generic, which is a shame from this band in particular, but it's still something I could listen to daily. I like it.
6. Calvin Harris feat. Ellie Goulding (2012)
Of all Calvin Harris's songs in 18 Months, this is one of his strongest. Ellie Goulding's vocals aren't super strong but they're strong enough to break free of the heavy bass in this song. I'll say for Harris: his music keeps growing in scope and feel, he makes his music more and more epic each album. From the early days of I Created Disco to Motion, via Ready for the Weekend, his music can be clearly charted in a sort of club-banger-epicness positive correlation. This is one of the first indications of that - while Ready for the Weekend didn't have much standout beyond "Not Alone" (and alright, I really loved "The Rain" in that one because it was kinda quirky and fun) 18 Months suddenly became all-banger, practically a club-hits playlist in and of itself. They're songs with texture and weight and volume, they lift themselves up and it might have taken a while for his sound to get there, but with Ellie Goulding and this track he really starts to reach it.
I still wouldn't put it in my top three for that album, but it's a good indicator of how far he's come since compound-eye shades and dancing with a stuffed ferret.
7. GJan (2013)
This is the poppiest song we've had so far. Five songs into the list and we're hitting 2013, and GJan's guitar-led mix of low-tech verses and electronic-heavy chorus. I like the way it bounces between the two, this is the sort of thing I usually listen to but about twice as fast. GJan has a potent voice, which is lost a little when she goes into rap, but that aside it's a strong contender.
The music video for Andrew Bayer's "Need your Love" sends us soaring over mountainous forests and along river streams, the atmosphere building as the white-noise intro builds along with it. I like interesting things done with sound, so that gets a plus from me, but I'm disappointed that it just drops it when the song starts properly. It doesn't let up on the feeling of an atmosphere though: this is ambient music with a drumbeat behind it. It's almost a freeform jazz based on nature. We've seen atmospheric and psychedelic songs done well in our lists before, so there's no reason for this one not to be the same.
But it cuts everything again to bring in violins! It's trying to tell a story, to my ears, but to do that it has to drop each premise as it gets interesting and bring up something entirely new. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it does lead to a lack of cohesiveness even when it brings back previous elements, because we're too busy focusing on the new ones. It feels like it has a bit of an identity issue.
Does anyone else remember Shaggy from their childhood? I remember sitting in the car on long journeys home, joining in with the semi-chorus of "wasn't me!" and feeling really great as a child because this song seemed so silly.
Well that's all changed! The Shaggy you know and love is performing what sounds like more grown-up Train, "I need your love" sounding like "Mermaids" without the actual mermaid imagery. But it's a good song. It's got a melody, the guitar is a little drowned out by the drumbeats but it's a rap song so I almost expect that. It's very typically pop but that's no fault, it's just a fact of so many post-2010 songs with generic titles. And Mohombi, Faydee and Costi are... well I don't know who's who because this isn't a scene I keep up with, but they're all good singers. This is one of those ones where I can't fault anyone, but I felt it was so generic I don't know where to put it. We'll see - there are a few standout bits which give it a tropical sound and that pushes it up in my favour.
10. J Capri (2014)
Late singer J Capri was a little-known hip-hop artist, and it's a shame because she had a brilliant voice and style, and her music is simple but uses all its elements to full effect. I don't have much to say about this one - I like it, it's accomplished, and it's unashamedly sexy. But beyond the vocals it's not particularly complex, and while that simplicity works it does leave me at rather a loss for words.
11. Nightcore (2014)
This is a sped-up version of Calvin Harris's song with an extra drumbeat underneath it. I could do the same with a couple of hours in Audacity. Boring.
12. Justin Bieber (2016)
Oh my God, we're listening to another Justin Bieber song. Oh wait, no we're... not?
Yeah, this isn't Justin Bieber. This is some autotuned amalgamation of some of his other songs, and maybe someone else singing who's just as heavily autotuned. Whatever - I've listened to maybe three Bieber songs in my life and even I can tell this isn't Bieber.
Incidentally, this song has apparently been released three times in the past year. And if you believe the YouTube search results for "Justin Bieber Need your Love", a completely different song also called "Need your Love" was released this year too.
No. You had me until I actually listened to you pal. But you are struck from the list for cheating!
13. ELIZIO (2017)
And the final one for this list, Elizio! The mix of twanging electric guitar and electro beats is a tried and tested one, but it works here, and while the vocals tend to get drowned out at times, it mixes up the beat and does some interesting things with the melody. It tries to be interesting at least, which is more than can be said for the counterfeit contender that came before it!
It's a little overly-autotuned, but it does some fun stuff with the drumbeats and that guitar is heavily synthesised but it works well in the background. It's just that electronic tuning on the voice, which really ruins it. It's not a terrible song, but the autotune is distracting to the point that it's all I can hear, and that's not a good thing.
Verdict
Ordering these is going to be difficult, partly because WE HAVE AN IMPOSTER IN OUR MIDST (looking at you, "Justin" "Bieber"), but also because so many of these songs were really good.
Anyway, that means NightCore goes last. It was awful, I don't even know if I should still include it but we've lost one song already! So it goes here. Last place. Fourteenth, because at least it wasn't disqualified. I think in thirteenth has to go Andrew Bayer's identity crisis of a song, because I didn't know what it was and that's a strike against it in my books. Yeah, we're getting nitpicky already. Chew on that, readers. I think N.R.G has to go next, purely because I had to worst to say about it beyond those first two (or three). Like I say, I don't exactly hate any of these songs - except NightCore's. There's just so much good on here that I have to make the tough decisions.
Eleventh is taken by Fleetwood Mac's "I Need your Love So Bad", but which one? It's... the three-minute version! Yeah, this surprised me. I just think it hasn't got as much to say as the other two, there's a lot the six-minute version adds, and the eleven-minute version gives us some insight into the process and dynamics and to be honest, those moments where they're playing and then they fuck up still sound amazing. Sorry, it's just a bit generic for what the other two are. Which puts in tenth... ELIZIO. Yeah, you know I'm not a fan of the overly-autotuned stuff, and I feel like this one would sound a lot better without it so it's a shame it's just drowned in autotune. Ninth goes to Gloria Estefan, because it was missing something and that bugged me throughout. That's the level we're at already.
In eighth goes J Capri. She beat out six others to get here, but I don't like that it's so simple and leaves me with so little to say. I'd like to say more about it, but I really have nothing. It's a little bit generic, and that's a shame. And since we're talking about generic: Shaggy goes seventh. I don't know, I just felt like these were songs I'd heard so many times before already, so I can't see myself putting them any higher. In sixth goes Calvin Harris, because even as a club banger it's become generic, the trends seem to have followed and now it sounds like everything else. But it's a strong song that doesn't have that same "heard it before" feel.
Fifth place goes to the Temper Trap, because I expected something a bit more interesting from them. This one just felt too generic, it's not what I was looking for when I saw their name. In fourth I'm going to put the eleven-minute behind-the-scenes Fleetwood Mac song. It's not quite a song, is it? When the music gets going it's really good, but it takes a while for that to happen, and before that it's just a lot of arguing.
Which brings us to our top three. And in third, GJan. Yeah, it was alright, but it's by no means a favourite. I like the pop vibes mixed in with simple guitar, but it wasn't energetic enough for me. In second can go Sol. It's a really good song, it works really well and I like how it brings all these sounds together at the beginning and makes them work. Which puts Fleetwood Mac's six-minute "Need your Love (So Bad)" in first! What can I say? I like that sixties-style-in-the-nineties aesthetic. It's a good song, and I can enjoy it as a slow song. That's my pick.
And that's the list for this week. This one was an absolute hassle to write, because I've just moved, and it's difficult to keep the energy going. But I got through it, a little late, and now I've gotta get started on another one. Until then, play on!
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