iTunes single bids goodnight to pop newcomers
By Jordan Blum
Each week Apple’s iTunes store features a “Single of the Week,” which comes from an “artist or a band who’s on the cusp of success,” according to iTunes. Often times the songs are very hit or miss.
Newcomer The Last Goodnight is the newest band to be featured as iTunes’ “Single of the Week.” The track, entitled “Pictures of You,” comes from its debut album Poison Kiss. The band may have made a mistake releasing the track for free, because the track isn’t even worth the time it takes to download it.
The quintet met in high school and earlier this year, Virgin Records signed them. The group’s songwriting has been compared to the brilliance of Elton John and Supertramp, among others. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Last Goodnight is completely and utterly ordinary.
At around three minutes, the track conforms to the expected length of a pop/rock song. As a matter of fact, every aspect of the music is cookie-cutter. The vocals are slightly raspy but still don’t stand out as anything unique. The production keeps all the instruments at an even level.
The construction of the song follows the standard and unexciting order of verse, chorus and bridge. True, other groups have used these templates, but their melodies were better, the vocals surprising and the timbre interesting.
Lyrically, the song reeks of rule-book writing. The singer uses too many metaphors for what are “pictures of you, pictures of me, reminds us all of what we used to be.” This piece is begging to be used as the opening of a corny CW network drama involving wealthy high school kids with problems. If the words provided some intrigue, it might make the whole package a little more worthwhile.
Overall, there is no conceivable reason to spend three minutes with “Pictures of You.” The song itself isn’t necessarily bad. The insult and scoff comes when it is compared to the countless tracks it is derived from. There is nothing original or worthwhile here, and it is shocking they were signed to a major label. Let’s hope this is the last of The Last Goodnight.
