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Sean Kingston - 'Fire Burning'

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Fraser McAlpine | 12:45 UK time, Wednesday, 12 August 2009

Sean Kingston

PREPARING TO LISTEN: Based on his work in the field of music so far, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna hate this. 'Beautiful Girls' was cack. I mean really, really bad cack. The kind of cack that gives cack a bad name, and it's not like anyone was claiming cack as a cure for the common cold in the first place. And before anyone starts spluttering and listing novelty songs or the complete works of Lisa Scott Lee or that time Take That ...just stop. I'm not claiming that 'Beautiful Girls' is the worst song ever made, that would be a bit much. It's still cack though.

LOT of ground to make up, 'swot I'm sayin'...

(. Sorry about the adverts, but OMG you have to watch the 'making of' clip. Too many dancers! Too much talking! The video director! Amazing!)

AFTER SEVERAL LISTENS: OK, so we're out of cackland, thanks mainly to a raised tempo, a club-friendly production and a MASSIVE bubbly synth. It all sounds very nowadays, rather than, say, sampling the music of the past and making it a bit more robotty. Plus there are TWO good choruses (which is two more than there were...etc etc).

Sean's voice is still lacking in any particular reason to keep listening. It's not a brilliant voice he's got, someone has processed the life out of it in any case, which kind of leaves the whole enterprise hanging on the way in which he pronounces words. Oddly enough, this is the thing he can do rather well.

There again, "make me wanna spend my money on her" is possibly not the most romantic of lyrics. And he does refer to that special lady he has his eye on as "shorty" throughout, so possibly he's one of those boys who can only express his positive thoughts in affectionately negative terms. He's a pigtail-puller, in other words.

WORRYING ASIDE: How shy are your modern R&B stars becoming these days? Can't appear on their own records without special guests, can't stop pointing at themselves as if they are terrified they are about to disappear in puff of smoke, and worst of all...they don't seem to have much in the way of a chat-up technique beyond hooking a thumb under an expensive necklace and shrugging.

And some of them are quite good-looking too! I mean, drop the silliness and let the real person shine through a bit, why...I bet they could easily get talking to someone nice, and who knows where it could go from there? I mean, probably a nightclub isn't the right place to have a decent chat, but everyone's got to start somewhere, poor lambs.

CONCLUSION: This is not cack.

Three starsDownload: Out now
CD Released: August 17th

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(Fraser McAlpine)

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    Not cack, I agree (which I'm surprised at) but very run-of-the-mill. Sean Kingston is an artist that really wears down my will to listen though, I mean that voice(!). I turn it over when it comes on the radio, just because for me, I'm already over it. A million R'n'B artists do it; RedOne has gone a step wrong here for me. Still, it's not totally awful like the sin he committed two years ago.

  • Comment number 2.

    What a world we live in where "not cack" is enough to generate a probable top ten hit. Oh Icarus, fly not too close to the sun etc...

  • Comment number 3.

    Oh yeah, we can say with some certainty that this is the least worst of his singles so far. Champagne, anyone?

  • Comment number 4.

    Sparkling wine maybe. Or possibly Happy Shopper Cola.

  • Comment number 5.

    I kind of like this and I definitely didn't think I would!
    Although three stars is more than generous as I do agree that it's not the greatest thing ever written or sung.
    I think even cola is too much...how about water that someone blew bubbles into?! ;)

  • Comment number 6.

    Its not complete cack .. agreed. I too hate Beautiful Girl. I thought I was alone in the world.

  • Comment number 7.

    No. This kid should have gone to jail for that. And so should whoever approved the sampling of Stand By Me.

    Didn't he do some crap with Natasha Bedingfield as well? Figuratively speaking, I mean.

    I'm not sure if I've heard this yet or not, but I won't be going out of my way.

  • Comment number 8.

    Yeah, Curtains, He did indeed do some crap with Natasha Bedingfield!

    It's better than Beautiful Girls, although I did like the video to that one (Stereotype '50s diner always goes down well with me though).

    I'm also not sure if I've heard this or not. I'm singing it in my head, but I might be singing Sean Paul.

    Is it: Fire burning, fire burning, something something burning tonight ohh oh ohh oh?

    If it is, I quite like it!

  • Comment number 9.

    "Didn't he do some crap with Natasha Bedingfield as well?"

    The phrase "Two Rappers, One Mic" springs to mind.

    (and if you get that reference, you are aware as I am just where civilisation is heading.)

  • Comment number 10.

    I'm not sure about civilisation, but I can tell you there's something happening to ChartBlog this weekend, and I think it's gonna be fun!

    More news tomorrow...or Saturday...or tomorrow...

  • Comment number 11.

    *puts down conversation crowbar*

  • Comment number 12.

    Oh the excitement !

    Is it

    An excitement over new releases section that I have been championing for ages ?

    Another how to destroy ?

    Sean Kingston reviewing the new Muse single ?

    Oh Frase , do give us clues !

  • Comment number 13.

    IS IT Hazel Robinson interviewing THE Killers ?

  • Comment number 14.

    is it footage of Fraser singing "Beautiful Girls " by Sean Kingston at a karaoke hosted by The Maccabees ?

  • Comment number 15.

    is it the premiere of Two Reviewers, One Chartblog?

  • Comment number 16.

    I've just watched Take That doing Smells Like Teen Spirit and I don't know how to feel. It was one of the most awful yet most hilarious things I've ever seen in all my years on the planet. It's numbed me.

    ALLO ALLO ALLO 'OW LO? ALLO ALLO ALLO - Ok, Gary, We get it! You have an accent!

  • Comment number 17.

    I watched it .... noy as cringeworthy bad as I expected to be honest. Just awful. Not quite as bad as Little Jackie doing Viva la Vida.

  • Comment number 18.

    I'll have to search that one out!

  • Comment number 19.

    It'd have been good if she hadn't have forgot the majority of the words.

    There's only so much humming you can get away with. Don't they write them down?

  • Comment number 20.

    Considering the army of fans that Take That have suddenly accumulated, I think I'm about to commit a heinous crime.

    In my opinion, they could sing Nirvana, and seem 'totally out there', and it's still boring. I find them amazingly boring. Even the mechanical elephants. None of them seem to have charisma. Gary Barlow, fair enough, he can sing and write a decent pop song every album or so, but he doesn't have that magic as an artist does he? Just a very sedative-like accent, though I admire him for Kilamanjiro (spelling?). Beautiful World sent me to sleep (I have witnesses) and I only like two tracks on The Circus. NOT any of the singles.

    Watched Little Jackie. Horrified.

    Sean Kingston is so mediocre we've gone on to comment on other interesting things so it seems.

  • Comment number 21.

    I think the IDEA is that they are boring, safe, bland etc.

    The Nirvana cover was always and is hilarious.

    They do Another Brick in the Wall as well... bless them.

  • Comment number 22.

    Al this chat of Take That being "boring " is seriously making me think of Robbie's return , which is literally so close you can almost see the "Bodies " .

    October 11th release date .

    Anticipation builds ....

  • Comment number 23.

    Take That are boring I agree. I think its 2 great songs per album? Although The Cirus has only produced the one so far. To be honest Id rather rummage through my own faeces than that album to find a second.

  • Comment number 24.

    I see your point Thranjax. Some people just like safe music, and that's not wrong, like my aunt for example. She's not a music enthusiast, she just needs easy listening. I, personally, find them a bit crap. Doing Another Brick In The Wall? If it wasn't so funny I'd stop listening to music.
    The ones I liked on The Circus were the one where they sing about being OCD and schizophrenic, and this other one I can't remember much but it was sung by Mark Owen, which surprised me because he bothers me normally.

  • Comment number 25.

    There can be no denying that Take That do safe pop music extremely well .

    Their last 2 albums have sold nearly 5 million copies in the U.K .

    Loads of people like them , but also there's a large proportion of people who like other things too.

    It's very easy to slate artists who work really hard for their success , it's a lot harder to really "big " up your favourite artists and share your favourite moments of their work , and maybe encourage others to check them out .

  • Comment number 26.

    I don't slate them for their hard work, 5 million copies sold ain't a fluke, I just don't like the end result myself.

  • Comment number 27.

    Absolutely, when I call their music boring safe and bland that is not a criticism: I cannot and do not doubt that they work hard at what they do and mean it all sincerely.

    Boring Safe and Bland is clearly what they are aiming for, it is their target and they fulfil the mission perfectly. There has always been a market for this kind of music, and from Pat Boone to Take That, the music industry is happy to oblige.

  • Comment number 28.

    I think you're wrong. "Beautiful Girls" was absolutely cack, but "Fire Burning" pushes Sean Kingston from the sort of music that makes me turn off the radio, into the realms of the music that makes me pick up my radio and throw it our of the window, screaming with rage about the state of modern music.

    From the autotuned vocals, through the stupid "Hey! Ho!" shouting that seems so in vogue at the the moment, to the bland lyrics, this song makes me seeth with rage. Everything about it seems calculated to make it a hit, pushing every seemingly fashionable button of the moment. As far as I can see, it has negative artistic merit. It is the musical equivalent of rubbing paint stripper over the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

  • Comment number 29.

    That last line is brilliant . Lmao .

  • Comment number 30.

    Ben - for goodness sake, stop sitting on the fence and just tell us what you THINK, would you?

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