This article has been reposted owing to a technical glitch
A bit of lighter pop to round off the week compared to a series of quite heavy songs that preceded it.
Theresa Rex is a force to be reckoned with. She’s been streamed, directly or indirectly (i.e. with other artists), hundreds of millions of times and mainly in the dance/EDM domain but her own solo career is a relatively new one and she was here last September with a single, ‘Touch’, in which I noted the quality of her vocal.
The last single we featured was Anmar’s ‘My voice’ – also from Denmark – and a song about the need to make sure your voice is heard, above the crowd.
Theresa’s song has a similar theme, except that she just needs it to be heard at all. She admits to having trouble talking about ‘deep stuff’ and having serious conversations. Almost as if whatever goes on in her brain won’t pass through her lips. So she chooses not to say anything, just imagining what goes on in other people’s minds, often ending up with her thinking that everybody hates her.
Yep, a classic case of paranoia.
So it expresses her simple desire that she could ‘Say something’, because “your silence is killing me./And my body is telling me/That we’re heading towards tragedy you and I”. And that signifies that she isn’t the only one staying silent. Unless
Last time out I said I thought she had something of Alanis Morissette about her. This time I would add that there’s a hint of Lily Allen in the slower opening section. By all accounts Ms Allen isn’t making the comeback people expected after her Glastonbury appearance last year and there’s a gap to fill in British hearts and minds. Theresa could be it.
She’s almost there with her little vocal inflections alone, which are part Brooklyn, part Brentwood. So burn becomes ‘biyourn’, warning is ‘woyorning’ and hurt becomes ‘huyurt’. And she has a little shriek which must register at about D6 I reckon, which will win her fans on its own.
That slower section doesn’t last long and the song quickly develops into a dance banger, with a consistently strong melody underscored by a rapid, insistent Stock-Aitken-Waterman standard bass line that takes on the proportions of a runaway train.
The only concern I have is the sudden ending. The song is 15 seconds short of three minutes and could have gone on into another chorus as I see it.
Five years ago Norway’s Sigrid burst massively onto the scene in the UK, courtesy of immense patronage from the BBC as its ‘Sound of 2018’ and particularly a song, ‘Strangers’, which carries an almost identical bass line.
As good as Sigrid is, and the song was, it was no better than ‘Say something’, and I have to say that I’m surprised I haven’t heard Theresa Rex on the BBC yet. Perhaps I’m listening to the wrong channel.
‘Say something’ is out now.
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