Song #229 of 9999 - Sleep Tight by Frankie Big Face

As mentioned in my post of July 20, I'm going to write about my own music for a few weeks as a way to get some song comments together for an updated website. My goal is eventually to have a few paragraphs written for every song on my website and I figured I'd start with all the Nur Ein songs I've written over the past six years. Nur Ein is a songwriting competition in the same vein as Song Fight!, wherein a title is presented each week and participants must write and record a song using that title. The songs are posted and listeners vote for their favorites. In the case of Nur Ein, there is a judging panel that ranks the songs and participants are eliminated each week until "only one" (nur ein) remains. There are also additional challenges that must be incorporated such as "lyrics in the form of a sonnet" or "guest rapper." Nur Ein has been around for seven years and I've entered four times and won twice. NBD. :D  This is post #14.

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Song #229 of 9999 

Title: Sleep Tight
Artist: Frankie Big Face
Year: 2009
Album: Nur Ein 4

Click here to listen!

 

There's really almost nothing special about my Round Zero entry for Nur Ein 4. Someone called it a "90's Brit-pop b-side" while another said "some rhymes...are too lacadaisical (sic) for the music." Everyone seemed to agree it was "breezy and pleasant." And one person was astute enough to recognize the bass as the "unsung hero." (The bass, not the bass player. ;) My favorite comment is that it sounded "effortless." That's just about the greatest compliment ever.

So what do I think? I pretty much agree with all that stuff. This is a throwaway, but a fun throwaway. It's an exercise in building a pop song and really understanding how the parts fit together in a pleasant package. The bass was really fun to play and I made sure to feature it prominently in the mix. The whistling is there to fulfill the challenge but I worked a reference to it into the lyrics so it didn't seem so random. In fact, the whole lyric is directed toward the kind of person who "whistles (his/her) way through life" with no regard or concern for the damage accruing in his/her wake. One of the fun aspects of Nur Ein is that I often write songs about things I would never think of without that little spark.

Fun fact! I cannot whistle. It's true. Getting a song challenge like "must include (human) whistling" was very stressful for me! Luckily, I have a friend who is a whistle master and it takes very little to get him to share his gift.