About You Now...

I think this is becoming my all time favourite Sugababes' song. It is a great song performed by a great band with great arrangements. Here's the video before I witter on any more:



There's already signs it's becoming the most covered Sugababes song. US teen actress Miranda Cosgrove seems to have adopted it as her theme song. What's interesting, when you look at Cosgrove's version is how like the 'Babes' original it is. Although this version did not chart especially well in the States it has spawned a million YouTube tributes. (The figures appear to be about 1.2m views for the Cosgrove version and 14m for the Sugababes).

Let's look at the song itself - it has great lyrics and a great tune and if you want to hear it in full simplicity you have to listen to the acoustic version at the end of Catfights and Spotlights.

In fact like many Sugababes' songs it is unbelievably melodious. For me it was an instant hit. And in fact my reaction was the same as when I first heard Overload, Round Round and quite a few other of their songs: How can they get away with it?

Those lyrics: you probably have to be familiar with the Sugababes oeuvre to get them in full. For the phrase "I know how I feel about you now" cuts several ways and so do the lyrics. Now undoubtedly the most musicall inventive Sugababes album is Angels with Dirty Faces. But I happen to think the Change album deserved its number one place, partly because the lyrics are stronger and more poetic than we had seen previously. Listening to this song your first thought might be that it's another Hole in the Head - a song of hatred. For how does the singer feel? We are never actually told until we get to the chorus and it's hard to make out until you see the full lyrics. It could also be a song of reunion or a song of loss.

The best line for lyric inventiveness: "Can we bring yesterday back around?" And in the five lines of that catchy chorus there are three half-rhymes: around/now/down/now.

It's a song whose tune and lyrics give it meaning that touches most people. And yet - can you imagine an X-factor contestant attempting it?

That brings us to the production. For from the first the driving dance rhythm belies the meaning, making you think it's more Hole in the Head than say ballad like Breathing Easy. For the Babes and their team have done something they should do more of - take a great song and adapt it to their dance roots - and then, only later, let us hear an equally beautiful acoustic version.

Finally never forget the contribution that the girls' voices make to a song like this. Yes any good singer could carry off the song but you need the combination of voices to make it special. Look at the way Keisha's gospel voice is brought in to do the bridge line, just before the chorus - "And I know how I feel about you". The word now is not added until the chorus.

In short out of 10:
lyrics: 9
tune: 10
arrangement: 10
performance: 10