How good is 'American Boy' by Estelle?

Black SHIT morelike

I mistook The Only Ones for Lenny Henry.

I'd like "American Boy" more if Lush had done it.

but I still maintain it doesn't sound particularly American

C'mon, Dubmill - the bassline is lifted from Colonel Abrams' "Trapped" for chrissakes!

I did mention the similarity to that record, but just because you model a track on something American doesn't mean that the end result sounds American. If you compare the two the Colonel Abrams is much harder and grittier - not necessarily in the mix or eq of the sounds they have in common, but the mood created by chord progressions and other sounds (eg NGGYU has swathes of sweet strings instead of the thinner, cold synth strings on 'Trapped'). 'Trapped' sounds catchy but a bit menacing. NGGYU sounds much more jaunty, cheerful and inimitably SAW.

Estelle, not much of a singer, live

I didn't see her TV appearance but it doesn't surprise me. Some of her singing on the record is a bit iffy. It doesn't matter of course because it's a great record.

The Only Ones were frightening.

A bit shit, really, the Only Ones, weren't they, in general?

No they fucking weren't, they were ossum

Anorexic Ronnie Wood squeaking the vocals was a bit much, aye.

Pleasant but kind of meh. I spent her whole Jools Holland performance last night transfixed by her enormous eyes and slightly Alien-esque hairdo.

Sorry, Tom, I remember Ossum very well, you're not getting away with that - they were on The Beechgrove Garden every Christmas.

"Estelle, not much of a singer, full stop"

she can carry a tune, just about. shes just lucky she has pretty robust tunes to carry.

I liked "Whispering Grass."

American Boy would be better w/a Windsor Davies rap fer shure.

Aha, <i>that's</i> what "American Boy" reminds me of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CK-f-Hhij4

(And if you can't be arsed to click, it reminds me of Dr Buzzard's "Cherchez La Femme".)

Massive xpost, but SAW's "Roadblock" was one of THE big tunes at Notting Hill Carnival in 1987, and this was after SAW had been identified as the artists. I was there for several hours on both days, wafting between the sound systems, and it was second only to "Cross The Tracks" in ubiquity. Make of that what you will!

Still reminds me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDNAQAYhvmo

follow the b-line solely and it sounds like a whole bunch of stuff

follow the song and dr buzzards no question

BUT in any case -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XMKkIRcKsA

will i am channelling ca$hley cole for the sequel pwns this out of the water on every possible level omg

why has no one commented on how this is exactly the same backing track as will i am's impatient? (then again i dont know if will i am produced american boy or not - maybe he did, the cheap bastard).

He produced both. He is a cheap bastard.

he did produce it, and you could've saved yourself the trouble of posting with a quick ctrl f + "impatient" of the thread.

(xpost)

its ok. it wasnt any trouble.

http://www.zingassociates.co.uk/images/zing-lemons.jpg

this song sucks

-- J0rdan S., Friday, 28 March 2008 10:11 (1 month ago) Link

what the hell is wrong with you

this is for people who like sara bareilles

not to mention that estelle's voice is annoying and the song has kanye at his most cloying and annoying

BIG HOOS aka the yael naim fan

BIG HOOS aka the dude who's wrong about "American Boy" because this shit sucks

kanye is actually the best thing about it. id like an all kanye version with estelle just on the hook. which is sort of what it is anyway but still...

i like this song.

it makes me want to fly in an airplane

new single is :D

i love american boy.

I like American Boy a lot. I heard the mix without Kanye and it falls flat, so yes...Kanye actually is the best thing about. The song she does with Cee-Lo on the album is probably the best thing associated with her right now, though.

HAAA i never saw this thread, well done all my pet haterzzz

are you back for good now or...

Kanye totally @ his most cloying and disingenuous but the fact that you know he's just making shit up to get the girl is what makes it so endearing. Homie comes off like one of my bros misrepresenting himself at a bar.

ha true, still don't like this song tho

The way Kanye says rrrrubbish with enormous quotey fingers and a hueg wink makes me so fucking angry every time.

Kanye totally @ his most cloying and disingenuous but the fact that you know he's just making shit up to get the girl is what makes it so endearing. Homie comes off like one of my bros misrepresenting himself at a bar.

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, June 6, 2008 7:25 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Link

I don't totally understand what you mean -- he's a big star on a sold out tour, talking about being a big star on a sold out tour, which might be annoying but isn't really disingenuous or misrepresenting.

Most of this album is great; I never came around to this track, tho.

I'm not even that into this song but I'm gonna be so depressed if it loses to Tyga in this silly poll: http://idolator.com/396653/your-summer-jam-tournament-update-voters-sure-like-shaking-their-coconuts

this album is pretty good if you take "American Boy" off of it

reread this thread and figured out the missing ingredient in the drifter/sensual seduction/i'm so high stuff is freestyle

this song has been in my head all morning

this album is pretty good if you take "American Boy" off of it

-- The Reverend, Thursday, July 31, 2008 7:13 AM (2 weeks ago)

"come over," "in the rain," "back in love," "pretty please (love me)" (!!!).. if she could sing a bit better i'd like the album even more. really good stuff.

The way Kanye says rrrrubbish with enormous quotey fingers and a hueg wink makes me so fucking angry every time.

-- Whiney G. Weingarten, Sunday, June 15, 2008 6:41 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

Uh, there's a half dozen examples of Brit idiom here; why get mad at this one?

This song triggers some really hard realizations for me, In a lot of ways I see myself as that American boy.

so basically you're saying that whiney's opinion is rrrrubbish

Basically, yeah. I think Kanye's really funny and quotable on this track.