“What’s it all about, Alfie?” is the opening line from the Hal David and Burt Bacharach song inspired by the 1966 film Alfie and sung by Cilla Black. It’s a reflective ballad questioning the meaning of life, love, and human connection and asks whether life is solely about selfish, short-term pleasure – Alfie’s nature, encapsulated – or if it requires love, kindness, and connection to something deeper.
AlvaMarit alsohas a need for reflection. She describes herself as an “ordinary person”, but is inspired by Nina Simone’s idea that artists should reflect their time. Through music, she tries to understand herself and create meaning that others may recognise. A social commentator if you like; even a flâneur perhaps, and one with the confidence to state her case, as the reversal of the meaning of that song title into ‘What It’s All About’ hints at.
She returns after a hiatus lasting a couple of years with the album ‘Ascending’ – to be released on 8th May – and this single is the first track from it.
Her subject here is the search for a direction in life – that feeling of doing everything “right”, but still experiencing that something is missing.
There is a couple, at least, of different subplots by which the song could be read. The first that occurred to me is one that connects to my obsession with politicians, journalists and ‘broadcasters’ who insist on describing Joe and Joanne Public as ‘the ordinary people’ as if they are in some way extraordinary. Joe and Josephine probably don’t consider themselves ‘ordinary’, neither do I, and I dare say AlvaMarit doesn’t really, either.
And both of the characters in the song resolve to improve themselves in ways that transcend ordinariness and avoid merely being cast as the perfect family couple.
The second is a little more tenuous and hints at a feminist approach where the female feels stifled and stymied by the actions (or inactions) of the ‘perfect’ male partner who leaves no carbon footprint.
So just like Alfie they are both complex characters who prove that change is hard to achieve once you are set in your ways.
It’s a catchy little ditty, very much structurally in the style of Alanis Morissette, the line “isn’t that alright?” delivered with the same bitter sarcasm as Morissette’s “and isn’t it ironic?”
Clever stuff.
(Continues after the Spotify link).
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