Next up: a slam poet. No, wait, come back…
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Thomas Inskeep: “A poetry slam is a competition at which poets read or recite original work. These performances are then judged on a numeric scale by previously selected members of the audience.” – Wikipedia
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Micha Cavaseno: George the Poet is a poet who is, for this song, using house as a vehicle for his message. This isn’t too wild a development, as house has been a fitting format for tons of examples of poetry: manifesto via sermonized musical fanfiction, musings of the history of man, the overwhelming fear of the city, nostalgic bitching, even just some conversational rambling. And that’s if you want to ignore MCing or song as poetry. George, however, is preaching “Hey, believe in yourself, you’re special” broad-spectrum eagerness that borders on Hallmark.
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Alfred Soto: Redolent of an earlier age of house (“Jack Your Body,” D-Train) and even one-offs like “I Wanna Be a Cowboy.” But although the cowbell and other beats are serviceable, the monologue is as unimaginative as most improvs.
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Patrick St. Michel: The believe-in-yourself message is nice but hard to swallow, because the beat absolutely outshines George the Poet’s guidance.
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Scott Mildenhall: “If I can do it, you can too” is as trite as it is fallacious, but George the Poet evidently has licence, just as it should be hoped he does to perform over what must be some barebones Friendly Fires demo. Thankfully, inside a tight concept there’s still room for hits as well as misses, and his presentation of life as its own intangible poetry — “the story doesn’t need the writer’s involvement” — is a sentiment of wonder given the expression it deserves. Ultimately he sounds good to believe in. “Gym Tonic” as directed by Baz Luhrmann works, for now.
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Madeleine Lee: Well, it’s more fun to listen to than “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen).”
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Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: “…BUT TRUST ME ON THE SUNSCREEN.” – George the Poet, 2015
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Crystal Leww: Spoken word and rap music are practically cousins, but they rarely merge well. I applaud artists like Dessa and George the Poet for what they’re trying to do with their art, but like Nicki says, “bitches ain’t got punchlines OR flow.”
[3]
Will Adams: Someone thought that the one thing “The Cha Cha Slide” needed was motivational speaking. Someone was wrong.
[1]
Edward Okulicz: Your hip young school guidance counsellor, who is actually only hip and young in his own mind, just made a spoken word house record. The idea that someone, somewhere thinks this might take off and be A Thing is deeply, deeply baffling.
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Katherine St Asaph: There isn’t enough serotonin in my body for this. Bumped one point because that’s hardly his fault, and I kind of love the idea of Kate Tempest producing industry ripples.
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David Sheffieck: The kind of song that belongs in a particularly positive — and sonically open-minded — kids’ show. George the Poet may write entirely in platitudes, but he delivers them well; I started the song scoffing and ended it tapping out the rhythm.
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Brad Shoup: He’s right: he did it, you can too. Please don’t, though.
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