TATAR #12 Foundations

 

by Kate Nash and Paul Epworth (2007)

This is odd. One of those surprising hits. There's nothing that really indicates that it could be a hit but it was. Goes to show there are audiences don't always know what they like until they hear it.

Now I am not the audience for this. To be honest, the content of the song barely registers. But the songwriting itself is fascinating.

Let's start with the most apparent aspect of the song, the accent. Kate Nash sings with a heavy London accent (she's originally from Harrow). I don't know if it's authentic. It sounds a bit affected to my ears but that doesn't really matter. The significant thing is that it's not the usual American accent and that, I contend, is not just a performing choice, it's a songwriting one. 

This kind of accent is all closed vowels, dropped Ts and glottal stops. So we get a staccato-type melody without any long, held notes. Really the melody in the verses just dances around the tonic note.This limited movement allows it to be closer to normal speech, which makes it easier to sing in an accent other than the usual American-ese that most singers use. The words are dictating the rhythm and phrasing. It also makes it easier to switch between singing and speaking. So we get lines like:

"You said I must eat so many lemons 'cos I am so bitter

I said I'd rather be with your friends, mate, 'cos they are much fitter"

The first line is sung to a jumpy melody; the second line is pretty much spoken. And we get a nice off-beat drawl on bitter/fitter. Which is kind of funny and memorable.

The next line hints at something nastier, abusive even:

"Yes, it was childish and you were aggressive and I must admit 

I was a bit scared but it gives me thrills to wind you up"

But that "childish" reference is apt. We hear that in the harmonies. They are childishly simple. The verse is three basic chords (I, IV, V). The chorus is another three basic chords (VI, V, IV). No inversions, no added notes. This simplicity not only allows the melody to bounce around on top, it also reflects the character. 

A lot of this song is narrative. She's recounting incidents from a bad relationship. That's all in the words and, yes, the words dominate. It's a very wordy song. But the way in which the narrative is being told, the character of the narrator, that's all the there in the music. The unchanging beat, the limited melody that never quite breaks free, these express a kind of boredom without being musically boring. That's not easy to do. And those childish harmonies. This is a young girl caught up in something bad that she doesn't quite know how to handle. All of which makes the chorus that more affecting: 

"My fingertips are holding onto the cracks in our foundations

And I know that I should let go, but I can't

Every time we fight I know it's not right, every time you're upset and I smile

I know I should forget but I can't"

And here's the interesting thing. We shouldn't like this character. The character being presented isn't a very appealing one - nasty, vindictive, bored, rude. Yet we do like her and I think it's the fact that she's self-aware. Those two lines are key: "I know that I should let go...I know that I should forget...but I can't". Without those lines, it's really just a laundry list of complaints. Instead we see that she's trapped and she knows that she's trapped. That's much more interesting dramatically. 

In fact, it could be a great theatre song.