Popjustice: Notorious “big”

PopJustice have posted their own verdict on Notorious, including a little more of the song, which you can read (in full) and listen to the clip from their site

Is ‘Notorious’ amazing?
Yes.

How amazing is it?
Quite amazing. It’s a bit Black Eyed Peas-esque, feels a tiny bit like Kelis and Rihanna, and has a strong, propulsive energy that builds throughout the tune.

What’s the structure like?
The fact that the beat keeps dropping in and out makes it difficult to get your head around what’s the chorus and what isn’t but the track’s not as all over the place as it first seems. Here’s what happens:

» Vocal intro – “I’m a outlaw, I’m the big boss, I’m a gangster on the dancefloor” twice with blippy ping pong noises.

» Instrumental intro – beat kicks in, which evolve into…

» Verse 1 – assorted banging on about “you know I like it in the streetlights”, “I l-l-love this track” etc. Quite bold and bolshy-sounding.

» Breakdown/pre-chorus/epic bit/actually-it-might-be-the-chorus – track drops out, there’s a big “oahaahahaaaaah” bit (this is the clip above), followed by a fiesty “closer, baby look in my eyes do you recognise MAY?”, followed by “I’ve been a bad girl, I’m a bad girl, I’m notorious”. Into…

» Post-chorus/actually-this-might-be-the-chorus – the track starts to build up again amid various epic sounding noises in the background, more “oahaahahaaaaah”  action and a full-on chant of “I’m a outlaw, I’m the big boss, I’m a gangster on the dancefloor”.

» Verse 2 – track slams back in, bits of singing about “everybody knows my name here, I’m the head of game here, pleasure and pain yeah, cos my resume says that I’m a bad girl”. NB: No members of The Saturdays actually

» Breakdown/pre-chorus/epic bit – this time the beat hasn’t dropped out and it’s all quite danceable.

» Post-chorus – beat does drop out this time, and post-chorus gives way to…

» Middle eight bit – “so baby tell me can you get it from my energy”. The answer to this is ‘not really love we don’t know what that actually means’. Then the whole thing drops out, leading to…

» Into the home straight – beat thunders back in, song explodes with reappearance of the “I’m an outlaw I’m the big boss” bit, music starts to drop out leading to the “closer, baby look in my eyes, do you recognise me?” portion.

» Song ends slightly more abruptly than you expect.

» ‘Fin’.

Read the full item over at Popjustice: http://popjustice.com/#ixzz1LsFe2tgS