let me repeat that: i want my STUFF BACK

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

This is the second best single of the year, after Umbrella-ella-ella-ay-ay-ay.

Watch on YouTube

The tune is killer, the vocoder touches neat, Aly & AJ deliver their lines with pizzazz, but what I love best are the lyrics: it's really well-crafted as a narrative, each line revealing an extra aspect to the situation; and it's concise, like Aly & AJ are tying a knot. It's an ultimatum which leaves the guy they're addressing in no doubt that they mean what they say and that they're not going to take any bullshit any more, but also leaves room for what they secretly hope he'll say in response with the neat twist at the end. Which will it be?


It took too long
It took too long
It took too long for you to call back
And normally I would just forget that
Except for the fact it was my birthday
My stupid birthday

I played along
I played along
I played along, it rolled right off my back
But obviously my armor was cracked
What kind of boyfriend would forget that?
Who would forget that?

The type of guy who doesn’t see
What he has until she leaves
Don’t let me go
Cuz without me, you know you’re lost
Wise up now or pay the cost
Soon you will know

You’re not livin’ till you’re livin’
Livin’ with me
You’re not winnin’ till you’re winnin’
Winnin’ me
You’re not gettin’ till you’re gettin’
Gettin’ to me
You’re not livin’ till you’re livin’
Livin’ for me

This is the potential breakup song
Our album needs just one
Oh baby please
Please tell me

We got along
We got along
We got along until you did that
Now all I want is just my stuff back
Do you get that?
Let me repeat that:
I want my stuff back

You can send it in a box
I don’t care, just drop it off
I won’t be home
Cuz without me, you know you’re lost
Minus you I’m better off
Soon you will know

You’re not livin’ till you’re livin’
Livin’ with me
You’re not winnin’ till you’re winnin’
Winnin’ me
You’re not gettin’ till you’re gettin’
Gettin’ to me
You’re not livin’ till you’re livin’
Livin’ for me

You can try, you can try
You know I know it’d be a lie
Without me you’re gonna cry
So you better think clearly, clearly
Before you nearly, nearly
Mess up the situation that you're gonna miss dearly, dearly
C’mon

You’re not livin’ till you’re livin’
Livin’ with me
You’re not winnin’ till you’re winnin’
Winnin’ me
You’re not gettin’ till you’re gettin’
Gettin’ to me
You’re not livin’ till you’re livin’
Livin’ for me

This is the potential breakup song
Our album needs just one
Oh baby please
Please tell me

This is the potential make up song
Please just admit you’re wrong
Which will it be?
Which will it be?

Comments

[koganbot]

Aly & A.J. aren't related at all to HSM other than that they're both on Hollywood Records and Aly & A.J. have acted on Disney shows (though not that one). The sound is different, they don't use the same songwriters (in fact they're their own songwriters, though they do collaborate with some music biz pros, but the ones they collaborate with aren't the ones who create the stuff for HSM and Cheetah Girls and Hannah Montana [there's a little bit of overlap, in that they've worked with people who did a couple tracks for the Vanessa Hudgens alb]).

From what you're saying the HSM audience is older in Britain than in the U.S. My guess is that HSM got kids from about 6 to 14; if they were getting kids through 25 they'd be on the Top 40 radio, which they're not. Ashley Tisdale (who's also mostly shunning the HSM producers) is going for an older audience on her solo stuff, but I don't think she's going to get it.

HSM has one tremendous, wonderful song, "Breaking Free," and a couple fairly fun ones (the ones Tisdale-Gabreel tracks) and some quasi-r&b that runs from blah to very blah. I thought the four leads in HSM were quite good, and overcame a good deal of the weirdly distant staginess of the way it was shot. Can't stand the new HSM song.

[(Anonymous)]

High School Musical is pretty popular in actual high school too, in my experience. Which, admittedly, is fairly limited.

Movie I just watched, Music and Lyrics makes a (probably artificial) distinction between music which is dinner and music which is dessert. Pretty much all Disney is dessert, but A&A is dinner.

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

Uh, that was me.

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

It really surprises me that the audience was so young in the US. I haven't ever seen it and I've only heard a few songs, which I disliked so I don't really know much about it but from what I've heard it's being ranted and raved about by the same people who really like Rent and Disney songs... which in the UK is 12-25 females.

I wasn't intending to suggest this was the same as Aly and AJ's demographic. :) In fact I'm slightly confused that they're even played in the same places- I think this is some of what puzzles me about Radio Disney. I should really stream some at some point and educate myself.

Although in the UK, Aly and AJ might find their audience was what the HSM audience is in the US, bizarrely. :/

[koganbot]

Well, the audience is young 'cause it was shown on a kids' network. It was a made-for-TV-movie on the Disney Channel. And if you see it you'll see that all the conflicts and characters are laid out for the viewer very obviously so that an eight-year-old can understand it.