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Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Daniel Merriweather – Red

Ronson’s chum invites a whole host of comparisons from us…



[Video][Myspace]
[3.44]

Edward Okulicz: A man who thinks he has the world’s best, most soulful voice sings a complete and utter shell of a song with a deliberately retro muffle and absolutely no believability whatsoever.
[3]

Martin Kavka: There’s a lot to tempt one to hate this song with the passion of a thousand burning nuns — Merriweather overemotes here like the most mediocre of Simon Cowell’s weekly prey, and the fade and then buildup of the strings in the song’s final minute is formulaic. Still, I don’t mind overemoting — even yelping at 2:53 — in the midst of a break-up song as wrenching as this. And the melody is to die for.
[8]

Hillary Brown: The production’s actually really nice on everything but Merriweather’s icky, whine-rock voice, which comes close to ruining this otherwise totally pleasant acousti-jam.
[4]

Martin Skidmore: Post Blount and Morrison, I have little tolerance for this kind of thing. This is not at all like Stop Me, in case you were thinking it might be.
[4]

Ian Mathers: Merriweather’s milquetoast, post-Once mewling is so infuriating that I can’t be bothered to try and parse out what the hell “you took something perfect and painted it red” means, so I’m just going to assume it’s as stupid as the rest of this sub-sub-sub-Coldplay piece of bullshit.
[0]

Joseph McCombs: A heartfelt, if somewhat tepid, ballad that could have been a Robbie Williams album track at the turn of this decade. I didn’t need such a thing, and I like Robbie.
[5]

David Raposa: Dear Daniel: please take this bathetic DeBurghian paint-by-numbers garbage and shove it up whatever hole that farting sound you call “singing” came from.
[0]

Alex Ostroff: Do we really need a second-tier Gavin DeGraw? Opening fingerpickings remind me of Nick Drake’s version of “Don’t Think Twice”, promisingly. After that, Mark Ronson’s latest pet project heads along a James Blunt-esque trajectory: second whine to the right, and straight on ’til melodrama. The lisp and weird vocal affectations evoke another vaguely rootsy singer with an unbearable voice, but I cannot for the life of me place who it is. Unnecessary strings, final chorus caterwauling, and so much “sincerity” add up to singer-songwriter by the numbers. We deserve better.
[2]

Erika Villani: It’s inoffensive and all, but we already have a OneRepublic. Do we really need another?
[5]

5 Responses to “Daniel Merriweather – Red”

  1. Martin Kavka, on April 30th, 2009 at 2:23 pm Said:

    Hi. The role of Martin Skidmore, customary lover of tracks you hate, is today being played by Martin Kavka.

  2. Martin Skidmore, on April 30th, 2009 at 4:13 pm Said:

    I’m also often a hater of tracks lots of others love (often in tandem with Lex, on indie numbers).

  3. David Raposa, on April 30th, 2009 at 4:20 pm Said:

    I think Martin’s also wistful for Ye Olde ILXers, based on the typo in his entry.

  4. wbswygart, on April 30th, 2009 at 4:27 pm Said:

    No, Blount is actually the right way of spelling his surname. Blunt is just the stage name. If anything, we should be applauding Mr Skidmore’s commitment to accuracy.

  5. Martin Skidmore, on May 1st, 2009 at 11:43 am Said:

    haha, sorry about that typo. I am not blaming Mr Blount for this kind of thing.

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