| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Track Structure | 7 |
| Interest | 6 |
| Melody | 7 |
| Performance | 8 |
| Lyrics | 7 |
| Enjoyment | 7 |
| Recording Quality | 9 |
| Commercial Appeal | 5 |
| Overall | 7 |
Going Through The Motions By Carol Sue Kirkpartick and Hans Mulders (Drainage).
Is soul music actually good for the soul? Why did I ask myself that? I'm guessing all music affects our soul in one way or another, if we do actually have one, that is (I'm a sceptic myself, but there you go).
If a song can make a person realise something by merely affirming a feeling that we have about ourselves or the life we live, then it must have some effect somewhere inside.
This song has affected me for sure, with the lyrical content alone, before I even listened to it.
Every day, I wake, drink a coffee or tea (ooh, choices, choices), leave for work, go to my job, do some work, read some of the paper with a cup of coffee or tea, do some more work, come back home, eat, play with the kids (which is probably one of a small number of fun activities I'm allowed in this life), help my wife bathe them and put them to bed, then we watch telly (or I come online for a while, another of my little pleasures in life), drink more coffee or tea, go to bed, fall quickly asleep and then wake up the next morning, one day older. This cycle never stops, but is broken slightly at weekends, which is a bonus, unless I'm working, of course.
Blundering from day to day, same old, same old...
From a personal viewpoint, this song catches that feeling perfectly, with it's vocal delivery and with it's gently flowing performance, it just kind of drifts along and leads you gently along with it.
In fact, lyrically at least, this song depresses me in a way that other songs with subject matters such as bullying, violence, religion, illness, death and politics don't. It depresses me because it captures the feeling perfectly of being trapped in a certain lifestyle, one that you would desperately love to break out of, but just can't seem to, no matter how hard you try...
I'm not meaning this as a negative critique of the song itself, I'm merely reflecting how this song makes me feel inside.
Musically, I find nothing much wrong with the song, it flows along at it's own pace - going through it's own motions, so to speak - not quite dragging the listener along, more like leading the listener to where it wants to go, in it's own time, much like life itself can do.
It's generally an easy going affair, nothing really changes much throughout the track, although there are some little welcome technical additions to the general groove, little start-stops of the music that help push the vocals along nicely. I don't know how much of this is down to Drainage's skills, or how much is down to the original composition, either way, it works.
Apart from that, however, I find the overall feel to be a little loopy sounding, a little repetitive (which I can guess is how it's meant to be, as it does add to the whole "day in day out" feel).
I'd have to say that, commercially, this may not quite fire up the general public's attention, due to the fact that the lyrics, whilst good, are a little repetitive, the same three sections of words being used a few times as the song progresses. Maybe more verses describing generic events that happen to us all (or most of us), such as eating the same kind of food every night, catching the same bus or taking the same route to work every day, seeing the same people, watching the same TV programmes every night or hearing the same kind of news, would help elevate this song into something more substantial, something that more of the population can relate to.
All in all then, a lovely sounding, well performed song that moves at it's own sedate pace, perfect for chilling out to if subject matter like this isn't a problem.
Saying that, I'm sorry to say that I personally need cheering up after a few repeated listens, if only because it reminded me of how mundane most of my own life is.
To listen to the track Click Here