Whigfield – 4Ever

Oh, now that’s a foot-tapper.

Tim: Last year’s C’est Cool got into the top 10 in Denmark and Sweden; previous to that, there have been no top twenty hits anywhere (Saturday Night remakes aside) since 1996. Is this the second step back to greatness, or was that merely a blip on an otherwise uninteresting radar?

Tom: Oh, now that’s a foot-tapper. I mean that literally, in that my foot started tapping to it.

Tim: As did mine. I also started bouncing on my chair gently.

Tom: That’s a really pleasant song. I suspect it’s one that’ll get annoying with repeat viewings rather than better, but hell: I’d dance to it.

Tim: Absolutely – it’s certainly a jaunty number. There’s excellent use of harpsichord throughout – perhaps too much, actually, because, at almost a full half-minute, the repetitive bit in the middle is (for me) at least fifteen seconds too long.

Tom: You are so wrong about that. It’s exactly the right length. It’s a brilliant bit of arpeggiation.

Tim: I beg your pardon?

Tom: Yeah, I said arpeggiation. Get me.

Tim: Well, good or bad as that may be, I’m hard-pressed to find much else to dislike about this – it’s bouncy, it’s friendly and it’s got a lovely ‘nice day out, fun for all the family’ vibe to it.

Tom: The lyrics are pap, and the middle eight’s not much to write home about – those hissing hi-hat taps are grating – but those are minor gripes, and seems wrong to mention them when the song’s so lovely.

Tim: It does, realy, although I would add my two: first, the line two minutes in, which until I found a lyric site confirming that it’s actually “you’re the one by faaaaar. Keep…”, I was convinced was the less than family friendly “you’re the one I [erm, thing]”, which really wouldn’t have sat right.

Tom: And now I can’t hear anything else. Thanks for that.

Tim: Then there’s the fact that this doesn’t have an incredibly famous dance to it that fifteen years from now I can ruthlessly mock you for never knowing about.