Taking refuge from WDC discussions (let me know when the ICMYLM discussions start, then we’ll talk! g) to talk about “Back for More.” So…my first exposure to the song was over a muffled cellstream – while I couldn’t make out much of the lyrics, it was pretty obvious even then that the song has a pretty compelling hook that could help it to get traction on Pop and Hot AC radio. I didn’t think it was uptempo enough to be a lead single, but my overall first impression was, “Hey, this could work.” I was lucky enough to then see Clay rehearse and perform it live on GMA the next morning in Bryant Park – what a treat that was! It was especially cool to see everyone on stage, including the band and backup singers, getting so into the song. After the double dose that morning, I started thinking, “You know, they may be onto something here.” Subsequently, I watched the televised version of GMA on tape, and caught the Toms River Fest clack of BFM. At this point, I’m thinking, “Holy crap, they really may be onto something here.” In the next 24 hours, I found myself completely won over, and I saw that I wasn’t the only one. I had this image of Team Clay reading the boards, and cackling as it chalked up the conquests. g

So I want to take a look at what I find so appealing about the song:

The Hook: The chorus is really catchy—it’s memorable, and I was humming it by the second time I had heard it. Moreover, the chorus is over a beat so well-defined that it’s very easy to listen and get into it—witness the swinging fist-pumping and head-banging that seems to take over the audience when this song is performed in concert.

Lyrics: I tend to be picky about lyrics, so when I first read the lyrics of BFM, the shine wore off the song a bit. Can’t we leave the overdone “addicted” and “can’t breathe” motifs to our pop princesses (specifically, Kelly Clarkson, whose voice I love and whose latest album I think is enjoyable, but whose artistic persona and style isn’t at all distinctive, new or interesting, in my view)? But then, I took a closer look. And I started seeing things, clever things. The radio subtext—look at the repetition of “the radio, the radio, the radio” to signify how radio is constantly repeating the same songs, and how that idea is juxtaposed with what radio can offer—the chance to hear something with which you really connect, that makes you flip stations just in the hopes of hearing that one song again. Very nice, and it’s an experience to which I think a lot of us can relate. In a related vein, I love the progression conveyed as the line goes from “I can’t help myself/I keep coming back for more” to “Try and shut it out/It keeps coming back for more” – it tells the story of how a song can go from being something you seek out to taking a life of its own and earworming its way into your head! Particularly apt in this case, given that I couldn’t get the song out of my head about 36 hours after having heard for the first time!

Another part of the song I liked—the start of the 2nd verse, “Somebody’s making a fortune/Selling emotions to fools like me who/Relate to what they’re saying.” It’s not the most eloquent line ever, but again, it’s the subtext that totally sells this to me—you can read this as a reference to the fact that Clay is an interpretive singer for this song (as opposed to the songwriter) who has found a song to which he can relate, you can read this as a reference to Clay as the radio listener who is going to go out and buy this record because of this song he hears on the radio, and you can also read this as awareness on Clay’s part that this emotional connection is being filtered through a commercial medium (an allusion to the whole art v. commerce debate). There’s some self-awareness there, and what I especially love about that is that it reflects what I think is Clay’s most winning characteristic to the general public—the one that made LtS so charming, and one of the things that makes him such a great interview.

In short, this song has much more lyrical depth than the typical commercial pop-rock song, and I love that.

The Persona: My fondest wish for Clay’s next album is that he find music that is credibly him, lyrically and musically. I feared that Clay might be pushed to change his sound to conform to Pop radio standards today, and what comforts me immeasurably about BFM is that while there are some mainstream aspects to this song, it’s still very credibly Clay. The chorus isn’t too far removed from, for example, IWCY or “Kyrie,” and the bridge is textbook Clay. The persona established in the song is also very credibly Clay—not only the self-awareness that I mentioned above, but it’s easy to connect what Clay is singing about finding the one song to which he can relate to what he has said about what he wants out of his own music, the music that will appear on his next album. It’s also hard to imagine any other male pop singer being able to sing this song—Clay’s voice has the depth and resonance to carry both the verses and the chorus, and he’s got the voice to wail when necessary, too. So, from the standpoint of sound and personality, BFM strikes me as very credibly Clay.

Dynamics/Build: I think BFM’s dynamics are managed very well by the lyrics and music. What do I mean by that? I mean how the music and lyrics convey the mood and the story…is there a coherent progression? I think the song does a great job of setting up the story in the first verse (a sort of “I don’t usually go for love songs on the radio, but this one is kind of getting to me, OK, now it’s really getting to me”), building to the very catchy, anthemic chorus, then stepping back in the second verse to acknowledge the commercial angle of it but then basically saying that doesn’t matter, because the song is increasing its hold, and then using the bridge to further solidify that hold. And the end is great – it reminds us where we started, and reminds us and confirms how much this song that he/we are listening to has grabbed hold of him and has him/us well, coming back for more.

Integration of Familiar and New: Yes, the start of this song sounds quite a bit like Hoobastank’s “The Reason,” and the bridge of BFM functions in the same vein as does that of “The Reason.” And melodically, there are definite similarities between the first two lines of the BFM chorus and those of Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn”—though there are definite differences in tempo and the aggressiveness of the instrumentation between the two songs. But those elements are combined with a melody on the verses that is different, and the rhyming structure on the chorus is very different (BFM has a 10-line chorus, which is lengthier than most, and the rhymes go AABCDDBEEC). So there’s variance. Also, from the standpoint of Clay’s sound, like I said before, the chorus and the bridge are along the lines of what one might expect from Clay, but the verses present him singing in a lower, more subdued voice than usual (which is great). It’s a seamless integration of the familiar and the new that makes BFM seem a credible step forward for Clay in contemporary pop-rock, one that doesn’t scream “sell-out” or “trying too hard” to me.

Looking Forward: Basically, a week after first hearing BFM, I’m still loving it. I’ll be very interested to hear how it turns out in studio. I do hope that the bass (which they may have pumped up for the concerts) retains its strong presence on the studio version (I think that, had IWCY had that kind of strong bass guitar presence on the recorded version, it would have stood a better chance at CHR/Pop and Hot AC success as a single). I think there is some room for some lead guitar riffing, though I don’t know if they’ll prefer to keep the studio version simple, and let Andy Abad play with it in concert. I’ll be interested in seeing whether they have Clay singing his own harmonies on the studio version—Jacob always does a great job live, of course, and it’s fun to hear Quiana and Angela joining in to add emphasis on the “on the radio” parts (I have a feeling that what they’ll do in studio is layer Clay’s vocals for the "On the radio" part to make it louder). I also love the “ah”s that Angela and Quiana sing in harmony on the second chorus—that amps up the song and facilitates its progression -- I hope they keep that. I also hope that the drums retain the crisp presence that Felix has been lending them live in the studio version.

In contrast to the other two new songs that we’ve heard, there aren’t big changes in the arrangement that I would want to see in the studio version. BFM is such a fantastic song live, so I’m really hoping that they’re able to deliver a studio rendering that retains the energy, charisma and excitement factor of the live version. I have high hopes.

Next up….”Just You.”