Customer Reviews

Sick 1

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Despite the other reviewer's lengthy comments on how "Sick" was merely some ploy to get alternative radio acceptance, I can't help but disagree. I have been a Sneaker Pimps fan since the start, up to and including the last effort, "Splinter," which first featured Chris as the new vocalist.

"Splinter" was a darker, more personal album. Many of the songs were centered around the prescence of an acoustic guitar, and tortured, depressing lyrical subject matter.

But this time the band wanted to get back to its roots: to make people get up and dance again. This is where "Sick" comes into focus.

The song itself, is, admittedly more pop sounding than previous Pimp singles. But you just can't help but bob your head to this beat. The chorus is a big, catchy chorus, with the line "and maybe then you wouldn't get so sick of me" repeated over and over.

The previous reviewer mentioned the slick production values on this tune -- and believe me, they are there. The song is immaculately recorded and mixed. However one needs to remember that the Pimps themselves are producers! Line of Flight, their production alias, has been producing for years. There is even a rumour of a Line of Flight instrumental album in the works.

All in all, this is a great song. And after the depressing nature of the Splinter album, the fresh beat of Sick is a welcomed change. Maybe it will be a vehicle for stardom, but I honestly doubt it -- most people in the US don't even know about the new Sneaker Pimps, minus Kelli Dayton. Either way, this single is well worth the purchase. Or better yet, buy the full album, Bloodsport.

For those Sneaker Pimps fans hoping to hear a musical vehicle that will transport the band into the genre of accepted "alternative" formats...then here it is. The production is crisp, with perfectly balanced punchy drums, a rubbery sliding bass line and syncopated acoustic rhythm guitar, driving retro analog string accented, hiply lyrical verses, building up to what we expect to be yet another edgy, style-setting Sneaker Pimps chorus ala "I've got a head full of draught . . . ", "Gimme a low five, downsize, no one else . . ." At this moment of truth, the Alternative Radio crowd will be sweetly satisfied, and have a nice quirky little ditty to hum along to in the car every 45 minutes in alternation during the rush hour commutes. But those of us hoping for yet again something new and cynically inventive from the genre forging rebels will be disappointed in the dry, pop sensibilities of where the song progresses. Be it bad enough that the over-syncopated vocals dancing all around the choruses prevents them from achieving status as a solid "hook", and that melodically it is rather ambiguous and twittery (so much so that only a few minutes after hearing the song I couldn't remember the title), but the smug air of the lyrics themselves, when paid attention to, are rather repellent. If viewed one way, the song is sung to us as the listener, forcing us to assume the role of the subject of the song's complaint. But as a listener I don't particularly want to really be complained about by the singer I'm listening to. So to take it the other way, I am listening as a sort of omniscient third party, hearing the singer complain, in a not-so-catchy chorus that doesn't hook, about an all-too-specific specific grievance with some girl, that does not really seem to universal to the human condition, society, etc. So the ultimate question is, who cares? The answer of course is - the KROQ crowd. The song possesses the saccharine, arrogant pop mediocrity that the "alternative" rock radio listenership love to shovel down like the latest brand of artificial flavor enhancer. All style and no substance. And so refined is the style in this case that it cannot even be commended for originality or flourish. Production and performance wise it is the same thing precisely that would be found in a live show. With the exception of the one-trick pony of a delay added to the vocals, the song and tracks are stripped and ultimately feel lifeless once we arrive at the chorus, with no extra production tracks to increase interest in the song as it progresses. There is no arc, no build, no climax, no cleverness in production or song writing, no special accents to transitions between verses and choruses. So I simply hope that this first single represents Sneaker Pimp's sacrificial offering to the pop market (after all, a band's gotta eat), and is not a sign of the album to follow.