Entertainment For Lively Minds
True Faith: George Michael and Comic Relief
Posted by chabsy on 19 March 2011 - 4:31am.
Contrary to most media opinion I found George M's version of New Order's song to be quite moving; by slowing the song down I heard the melancholy lyrics for the first time, and George himself seems to be a lad eager to take the piss out of himself. This is not an 'ironic' post, I really mean it. Now shoot me down in flames.
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I quite like him (in a non ironic way)
Not sure I like the treated vocals on True Faith. He certainly wasn't taking himself too seriously in that Comic Relief sketch last night with James Corden!
I think this is the best song/interpretation he has done
not sure if I liked it...
...as such but I thought it was an interesting thing in itself. A strange kind of avant-garde MOR, really minimal but with really "smooth" sounds. Just a bit odd. a brave version though and I like the fact he has pursued a singular creative path for the last 10 years or so, like he is refining something to the point where there might be nothing left.
My favourite song by Mr. Panayiotou
George is OK. He's written some great pop songs
Bloody lovely song
I first heard this in September 1997, just after the death of the People's Princess, on a tape the previous owners of our new car had left in it. Seemed to really suit the odd mood of the country at the time.
That's
a coincidence. Ma Bisto and I were on holiday in France when she died and thus missed all the brouhaha back in Blighty. We were listening to Older on the Walkman and portable speakers back at the cottage (no TV or radio) when the lady who owned the place came to tell us that she'd been killed.
Father Figure is a good song.
As is Freedom 90. Wont hear a word against Outside or Too Funky. He's a fine pop craftsman is Mr George.
This reminded me
of a music chat show I saw maybe 20 years ago, where I was very pleasantly surprised to hear Mr M announce how the second side of Closer was the purest example of music he'd ever heard.
My flabber was well and truly gasted by that one, but ever since then I've kept him apart (in my mind) from yer avrij pop star.
I like George Michael...
...a lot. I like True Faith a lot. Having said that, my ability to enjoy this track was utterly destroyed by the vocal processing. If there is one thing that consistently brings out my curmudgeonly side, it is frikkin autotune. Having heard so many bad pop singers use it to hide their lack of talent, my default brain process is to add a "talentless wanker" tag to any track butchered with vocal processing.
It's like when I see someone with cosmetic surgery, it doesn't matter how old they are or how well it is done, my brain automatically adds about 10 years to their age and tags them as ugly.
A great voice...
..., writes great choons, not afraid to experiment, plough his own furrow or take the piss out of himself and did a great cover of Was (not) Was's " Where did your heart go".
What's not to like ?
It's a grower
I must admit that I had an wtf moment on first listen, but I think he's on to something. The use of the Vocoder as an instrument has a fine pedigree (Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Zapp, Kraftwerk etc etc) and I find it unsettlingly beautiful here - rather better than a straightforward interpretation.
Just noticed
The smoke people in the video are a neat little nod to the original True Faith video. Cute!
First time
That is the first time I have seen or heard it. Excepting Wham's first LP, Too Funky and Outside, I don't like Geroge Michael's music at all. I always think he squashes the life out of every song he sings.
However, I don't mind that. I *like* the use of the vocoder. It takes the song somewhere else. I don't think I particularly want to listen to it again, but I rather admire it as a version of the song.
I was going to suggest
A degree of revisionism here, after the sterling job george done on CR.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/that-george-michael-true-faith-rei...
But to be fair is seems none of the reactionaries on the first post have posted on this thread.
And I think we should stop confusing the use of autotune to shape up a poor vocal with those who use it as an effect, such as the ones mentioned above, in the way a guitarist might use a effects pedal
Agree
that in this case it is used as an effect rather than a turd polisher. But the effect has been abused so much in my opinion that even the proper use of it is tarred with the same brush. By that I mean, I can't get over the sound of the processing to enjoy the song. It's a personal thing.
Yep
I've no problem with FX at all, and where would we be without the distortion pedal, Delay, Chorus, Reverb, Flange, Phaser or Geoff Emerick wiring Lennon's mic through the Leslie Speaker on 'Tomorrow Never Knows' (in response to the request "make me sound like the Dalai Lama")
My issue with this track is there is no let up and the Autotune is layered on with a trowel. It's a dreadfully cliched and overused effect..default setting for whacked out R&B and EuroPlop producers the world over. It's naff and it sounds rubbish.
I think it's quite an interesting idea to turn what was originally a thumping, industrial track into a mainstream soul ballad. I just wish that at some point they would switch the bloody Autotune off and let us hear the man sing.
George Michael is brilliant!
Older must be one of the great albums of all time, not a dud track on there anywhere and six or seven absolute corkers.
And although youtube will not let me embed the video
I rather like this song - and the line
"Music fell like rain to the streets
The Specials and the Jam, ABC"
is possibly the best line about 80's pop in a song. Gets me every time.
that song and vid
Never fails to move me. As someone born and bred in Edgware, and a teenager in the 80s, there are a lot of places I recognise in the vid. For a lot of us, we felt we grew up with George - he's one of us.
For me, it's the line, "I've gotta be thankful, this crowded space is the place of my birth..."
It's not so much a love song to London, but the suburbs of NW London and south Herts, and the people from that area.
*sniff* got sumfink in my eye...
Not a fan of George's music or New Order
but this I liked.
The arrangement suited the lyric. The autotune was used as an effect, as art vanderlay very eloquently put it, rather than a fix.
And it worked.
I still don't like it,
but I still like George, and I thought he was hilarious last night.
yep, very funny
George has produced some truly excellent music post-Wham, and after his performance with Smithy, perhaps the odds have shortened on a Wham revival. Heaven forbid.
I seriously think George has the makings of a good comic actor.
James Corden and Ruth Jones should think about writing a sitcom for him. They could call it 'George' and it could be about the life of a washed-up 80s popstar, coming to terms with the 21st Century.
I'm not suggesting George himself is washed-up, but I really think it could work. He's brilliant at playing himself, and I'd like to see more. I'm also not suggesting that playing oneself is easy; it isn't.