Alex Day – Forever Yours
Your regularly scheduled reminder that “viral” comes from “virus” and means “unkillable parasite that destroys people.”
[Video][Website]
[5.00]
John Seroff: Not that you needed it, but here’s further proof that being a homegrown Youtube breakout success doesn’t collate to quality of songwriting, melody, lyrics or anything much more than broad statistical likeability. I’m pretty sure the US will be able to repel this guy from boarding our Billboard; the youth of America doesn’t yet seem to be clamoring for a yet more puerile, Anglicized Owl City. Thank god. Y’all keep a stiff upper lip out there.
[3]
Iain Mew: Alex Day is a 22-year-old unsigned singer (in a real DIY sense rather than an astroturf one as far as I can tell) who has built up a following on YouTube with songs about Pokémon and Doctor Who (the video for “Forever Yours” shows a Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 under his TV). His outsider chart success story is rather impressive; getting a single into the UK Top Five is not easy and even taking the Christmas #1 campaign route and releasing nine versions of your song, you still have the difficult task of converting people from just watching you to actually paying their money for your single. For the single in question he’s ditched the geek reference points for a rather more straightforward love song, with a combination of cheap keyboards, weedy singing and virally sweet hooks which really reminds me of The Research. Alex’s words aren’t as clever as theirs but he does a good job of playing up the musical vulnerability and linking it into the emotions of the song. Too reliant on the indulgence of the listener to be a great song, especially the awkward skip/speed up at the end, but enough for me to warm to him. Then I watched the video and saw that he had decided that it was a good idea to show zombies shot in the face, and to make the girl zombies the most prominent, and it just reminded me why I avoid most video games sites these days.
[5]
Michaela Drapes: The part of me that loves “Fish Heads“, Sparks, They Might Be Giants, filk, Ben Folds, and The Boy Least Likely To — and any other ridiculously geeky music — is really, really, insanely happy right now. This is why they invented the internet, right? I’m not sure how I ever survived before knowing that I can watch the human equivalents of Cute Overload ad nauseum.
[7]
Anthony Easton: Sweet and delightful, with a sweet little chorus, and jangly in that indie kids falling in love kind of way.
[6]
Doug Robertson: British, bouncy and as cheap as a budgie that’s been reduced in price due to its incessant noise, this is, frankly, brilliant. With its bedroom beat and Essex edge it harkens back to the days of Britpop, had Britpop been what you wanted it to sound like rather than the seemingly endless sludge of Oasis copyists who clogged up the charts with their refusal to possess anything even remotely like charisma.
[9]
Brad Shoup: While I’m looking forward to a UK chart that reads like the Sunday night entertainment lineup at Eastercon, I’d rather it not be achieved with a Muppet of a man who sounds like Wreckless Eric without the yearn or Sparks with the heart. Annoyingly sincere, and all for charity too! If you need me, I’ll be in the flagellatorium.
[2]
Alfred Soto: The interesting concept gets diluted by the usual adenoidal emissions. Or adenoidal is the concept.
[3]
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the low geek quotient on this panel; I guess I never really gave it much thought before now.
That being said, I will give a caveat to my review — the excess of girl zombies thing actually did make me blink a bit.
I love nearly every act you mentioned. There’s no geekery to be found in this song, though. Video, sure.
That awkward triplet? That’s pretty geeky to me! (;