Welcome all to ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ป๐ผ๐น๐น๐โ๐ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connollyย - an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of ๐๐๐ฌ ๐ผ๐ง๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ฅ๐ค๐ฉ๐ก๐๐๐๐ฉ playlists.
๐๐๐๐ก ๐ฝ๐๐ - ๐ฝ๐ง๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐พ๐๐ฎ
Charles tries, tries againโฆ
Big bucks. Big corporations. Fat cats. Think Amazon. Think Apple. Think Shell. Think Facebook. Think Elon Musk. Think Jeff Bezos. Think Mark Zuckerberg. Think Trump (simmer down). Think... Taylor Swift... "Wait, what does SHE have to do with these pigs??" - I didn't say they were pigs; YOU said they were pigs. "Okay, but what is SHE doing there??" - This intrigues me. Barring the last name mentioned, these are the things and people we are all supposed to hate. Hate with a passion. This whole corporate attitude STINKS!! How DARE they be rich and successful! Okay, okay. Ethically, youโve got a point. Politically, youโve got a point. But what it tends to boil down to is entrepreneur minds turning into business people, turning into wealth. Big wealth. I find it interesting that we apparently all love Steve Jobs, yet all detest Tim Cook. Apparently the reason behind this is that โSteve Jobs was some sort of spiritual guru, and Tim Cook is just a money manโ (not actually a quote). Wait a sec, you think Jobs was simply passionate about making our lives betterโฆ? He was an entrepreneur with unbelievable business skills! He wanted to make a tonne of money! Same as Cook. And both have done rather well.
Are you really so terribly against these people? It would surely be easy enough to stop lining their pockets by boycotting the lot, no? I can already hear the blood boiling in peopleโs veins as this article makes them angry angry ANGRY!!! And so, Mr. Complainer reaches for his phone to post a spitting comment of rage to his social media platform of choice, but quickly because he has to pick up the kids from school. The problem lies in the fact that he has posted his comment on Instagram, Facebook (Mr. Zuckerberg) and TwiX (Mr. Musk), using an iPhone (Mr. Cook) that he bought on Amazon (Mr. Bezos), and then (after a quick swig of Coca-Cola) he turns the ignition key of his gas-guzzling SUV (Mr. Shell). It turns out boycotting is harder than you thought. This just in: despite petrol being so expensive these days, charging an electric car is due to be more expensive than petrol. Hardly an incentive to make that switchโฆ โBut weโre saving the planet!!โ - nope. No youโre not. And you suddenly donโt care about that when your bank account is being eaten into at an alarming rate by your shiny new lithium battery on wheelsโฆ And so, petrol sticks around for a bit longer. Letโs get back to Mr. Complainer. You see, he actually likes what they have given him. Ahem. SOLD him. This angry reaction to me, is as crazy as a client asking me to produce their track, me charging a fee, them being happy with the result, and then them getting angry that I actually make a living from this!! How dare I do a good job. How dare I charge for something the client wants! Thankfully, this altercation has never happened. Because of COURSE it hasnโt. That would be stupid. But now imagine that I were suddenly the most successful producer/engineer in the world and was therefore making a stupid amount of moneyโฆ The hate would start. Absurd to me. Despite the hate, I would still like this to come true. Which brings me on to my next point.
When people say โHow dare they be rich and successfulโ, they are not really completing their stance. What they tend to mean is, โHow DARE they be rich and successful, when I am NOT!!โ - Ah. We have hit the crux of the matter. The cold, hard truth of it all. Jealousy. While there are many reasons to be put off by some of these giants in business, jealousy should not be one of them. Otherwise it's pure hypocrisy. We'd all like to be rich. Some of you even MAY be. Money buys everything. Even love. Well, no. Not love. Maybe plastic love... But it definitely buys everything else. Sad but true. Oh, actually, I'll tell you what it doesn't buy. Accomplishment. A sense of achievement. Unless of course the achievement is in the making of these pennies. In which case you're quids in.
โBut what about Taylor?? You havenโt explained about Taylor!!โ - Ach. I was hoping you would have forgotten that bit by now. Taylor Swift is a marketing ploy. Sorry to the fans, but I believe this to be true. An extra special apology for NAS artist Paul McCormick - I know youโre a huge fan. She - coupled with her team - is the same as the big boys at the top. The despisees. She is simply packaged differently so as not to rile the general public. Many young fans look up to her and see her as a role model (others perhaps simply see her as a model). Music is far more appealing and accessible than business. But sadly, in this league, music is business. Swift is a brand. A dangerously huge brand. I donโt think any artist should get THIS big, as it can have horrendous knock-on effects. Political endorsement in music is something I personally cannot stand. These mega musicians and artists NEED to keep their political views to themselves, or at least not megaphone them into our eardrums from all angles. Itโs a form of brainwashing. If you were to vote the opposite of your idol, you might see it as betrayal as a fan. So you do what youโre told. This is NOT a good thing. Letโs keep music pure, no? We have little left to enjoy. By all means, write a song called โOrange Man, Badโ, but keep it to the confines of the song. Please donโt just go on social media and say โVote for this person, not that personโ. I don't want music to go the way of Hollywood. Some might argue that this wish is a ship long sailed, but I like to think positively. I like to hope in between sighs. And politicians need to learn the same lesson: stop playing our favourite songs on your โlove meโ demonstrations. Youโre really spoiling our fun. Something at which politicians are incredibly adept.
Enough spoiling your fun; letโs get in to music. I said last week there was one other song (of several) I particularly went for, but that I wouldnโt say what it was on the off chance that I review it the following weekโฆ Welcome to the following week. This song has been stuck in my head every day since then, so I really couldnโt ignore it. It is time for Nashvilleโs own Brenda Cay to step into the CC spotlight for the very first time, with her latest single: Fail Big. Although Brenda has been a member of the New Artist Spotlight for many years, I have never reviewed her. This is not because she is no good. Far from it. It is because although I can appreciate and talk about music that isn't necessarily to my personal taste, sometimes it can be tricky. In the case of this artist, the difficulty has always been a thing of genre. I do try to be unbiased and showcase as much as I can in terms of musical scope, but there does have to be something for me to latch on to... Growing up in the 70s will have given you a splash of Country lovin'. Growing up currently might be giving you youngsters a similar vibe. But when I was growing up, Country was as dead as disco (at least in Britain). It was as unpopular as jazz. That is, until disco and jazz came back. It amazes me how we rehash the same old things every couple of decades. As soon as it hits the base of the trough, it starts climbing again. Like a soundwave, wiggling up and down ad infinitum. Quite strange. Anyway. Country music. Simply put: it ain't me, babe. Now, I know that to many of you in the Ewe Ess of Aye (especially certain states), this could be tantamount to blasphemy. But it has rarely floated my boat. In fact, as soon as that twang comes along, I'm usually bailing out the boat, bucket by bucket so as not to drown! So THIS is the simple, perhaps shameful reason I have never reviewed Brenda Cay. She makes purely country music, and I don't go for Country music.
Two bits of good news though. One, those who go for Country music absolutely LOVE her stuff. Two, for those who feel as I feel, this new single is different. Sure, it is absolutely still Country, but there is a LOT more pop in this one. A modern pop too. And as Taylor Swift and many others have realised, Country pop hits BIG. Before I go into the song, I'd just like to give you an idea of Brenda's success so far... She has had 14 licensing deals and more than 7 million streams. Her music has been featured on the Country category of Apple Hot Tracks, as well as the Academy of Country Musicโs New Music Friday playlist. She has been featured in numerous Country music publications. Her song, I Fish, received an Honourable Mention at the American Songwriter awards, and she even won first place for her song, Remind Me of Me. She is a member of the CMA (Country Music Association). She has 45,000 avid followers on social media, and currently has more than 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify alone. So you see, Country is very much here to stay, and so is Brenda.
Fail Big first caught my eye because of the title. It's weird. But good weird. Its meaning though, is far more interesting. As always, the song's meaning is open to interpretation, but I have a plausible theory. There are certain brilliant, daring minds throughout the decades and even centuries that have come up with crazy concepts for "how to make a buck", where others have very possibly told them it would fail. Yet in their own mind, they can see a clear vision. They can see a gap in the market. And most importantly, it ends up working. This used to be what "entrepreneur" meant. Now "entrepreneur" is what you put in your TwiX bio, along with "promoter", "expert", and "God". This might be semi-believable if they didn't have 14 followers... So yes, these REAL entrepreneurs have initiative, invention, daring, assertiveness and an "all-in" attitude. If it goes wrong, it will cripple them. So that's why the best make sure it doesn't go wrong. This is why the best are the best. Brenda evidently realises this (if I haven't read the song entirely wrong), and is therefore truly inspired to be just like them. A go-getter! Well so far, she is going and she is getting. I have a feeling this song is only going to propel her into the near impossibility of making it in the music industry.
I am absolutely CERTAIN that if this song had been released by Taylor Swift or Shania Twain, this would be a classic song forever. One that half the world loves while the other half keeps bailing out the buckets, but where everyone KNOWS it. The mentions of famous brands and names also help with that. An instant connection with listeners when Disney, KFC and Bohemian Rhapsody are mentioned. But the hook is in the chorus. Such a fantastic and unexpected chord when the word Fail hits. One of the best and most catchy pop choruses I have heard in a long while. As to the sound and the production, it's all just flawless. Brenda's voice curls to perfection with impeccable enunciation. As ever! Her songs have always had excellent sound, but this one I think really takes things a notch higher. It sounds like Nashvilleโs top session musicians and a leading sound engineer. The main guitar riff sounds epic, and again just sounds classic. Fail Big is to Country Pop what Joe Bonamassa is to modern Blues. The best.
Frankly - and I never thought Iโd say this in one of my reviews - she could not fail bigger. EPIC FAIL!!
Aside from daring, guts and foresight, being an entrepreneur means 3 things: money, professionalism, status. In other words, Quid pro quo.
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One that easily could've made the list is Bill Gates ๐...
I have never had a jealous bone in my body, so I can't relate to that - but I've surely seen jealousy at play. What a waste of energy. I would love to see Brenda "Fail" Big. It seems she's already well on her way - and this song is stunning. Go Brenda Go! I'm actually a long time Country Music fan. Never really thought about it, it just feels right. There's a song by Vince Gill- "Next Big Thing" - and I hope Brenda is the one. "Fail Big" has this big Nashville studio production with the super tight e-bass/drums, classy vocal sound and those nice fill-ins everywhereโฆ
What a fantastic review! Itโs truly inspiring to see Brenda Cay finally getting the spotlight she deserves. โFail Bigโ sounds like a game-changer, blending the best of country and modern pop. Brendaโs journey and success are a testament to her talent and perseverance. Canโt wait to hear this track thatโs been stuck in your head all week CC! ๐โ๏ธ
Oh! Awesome artiste/music and also great review.
Loved the review had a good read keep it up will be waiting for the next one cheers ๐ฅ
Was cool to learn a bit more about Brenda. Super impressive work. Maybe itโs time to make a country album? ๐