Jack Penate - 'Have I Been A Fool'
At this time of year, we all start to look back at what the defining musical hallmarks of 2007 might've been. My money's on it being the year that pronounciation really started playing a key role in hit records. The most obvious example might be Rihanna adding an extra syllable to the word "umbrella", turning it into an "um-bar-ella", but perhaps the silent hero (literally) of the year may turn out to be the glottal stop. ( certainly seems to think so, even if they rather beat us to this particular revelation.)
Lily Allen popularised it last year, and it's been used to great effect by Ka'e Nash ("and I knahhh tha' ah should le' go, bu' ah cannnn'.") whereas Jack Penate is using it very sparingly on this record for maximum impact. Which, no offense to Ka'e, does make it a little bit more pleasant, aurally speaking.
'Have I Been A Fool' is one of those tracks that cleverly juxtaposes a bittersweet story ("I made a meal of it and stumbled, we both knew that my cookie crumbled / I led you on, leading's wrong") with an impossibly jaunty melody, possibly to deliberately make life difficult for the people who compile genre-based compilation albums for a living. You know, the ones who try to put songs like 'Young Hearts Run Free' on albums of love songs, because they didn't bother listening to the lyrics at all.
There's a bit of a double-edged sword thing going on here. On the one hand, this taps into the current vogue for eloquent tales of love and loss told by cheeky types, preferably in Estuary English, and delivers everything you'd expect of it. On the other, I can't help thinking it's likely to get buried under the sheer weight of familiarity that accompanies it.
Melodically, it's heavily reminiscent of The Fratellis (particularly 'Creeping Up The Backstairs') and lyrically, there isn't anything especially new or inventive here. I stress: nothing is being done badly, quite the opposite in fact, it's just that there's a certain genericness about it that's really disappointing.
But since I'm loathe to end a review of a song I genuinely liked with a negative, I shall say this: Jack Penate's vocal dexterity is impressive as he hops and skips his way around the scales and makes it all look enviably easy. That almost makes this worth four stars. Almost, but not quite.
Download: Out now
CD Released: December 3rd
(Steve Perkins)
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