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Jay Sean - 'Stay'

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Fraser McAlpine | 10:07 UK time, Friday, 4 July 2008

Jay SeanWe are living in a time where fresh ideas are becoming harder and harder to come by, and songs are becoming more and more rooted into a set way of doing things.* This isn't just true of pop music, by the way, most musical performers are working to a set pattern, and often have a very clear idea of the kind of song they want to make - right down to the exact song they wish to RE-create - before they even start to get their ideas together.

This is where remixers come in very handy. We already know that Freemasons are doing sterling work in keeping the careers of several US R&B stars ticking over here in the UK (we know this because we asked them). And it looks like Jay Sean's latest has been helped towards amazingness in a similar way.

Here's the original version. Which is alright, a bit drippy, truth be told, and the verses work to a formula which has been tried and tested by other artists, many times. Especially that trick where there's a call and response between the main vocal and a pillowy soft harmonised version of the main vocal, just to vary the melody a little bit.

(Ignore the subtitles here, the CD won't be in the shops until next week. Someone in the Sean camp has forgotten to change the date on this. Maybe they're off doing wonderful things, and having far too much fun to bother. I hope so, anyway.)

Anyway, the chorus is strong, and that's presumably why Boy Better Know kept it for their remix. A remix which does entirely destroy the soft, sobbing mood of the original, it's true, and replaces it with a gang of rappers (Skepta, Frisco, Chipmunk & Jammer, since you ask) acting all tough and grumpy about womankind in general. But you have to admit, it's hard to ignore...

I really, really hope that the line "make her know if she don't open the door, you're boppin'" refers to some kind of forced entry, rather than, y'know, fisticuffs. I'm almost sure that's not the point of Jay's song, and certainly none of the other raps wallow in that kind of pointless, macho thuggery to the same degree.

Assuming this is the case (and Lord knows knocking a door down isn't that nice either), it's the remix which works better, just because it seems to work to less of an obvious blueprint. Which is ironic, given that a remix which takes out the verses, speeds up the chorus and introduces rappers into every gap is hardly a groundbreaking idea, but there we are.

Maybe Gallows should have a go at the next one?

Four starsDownload: Out now
CD Released: July 7th

(Fraser McAlpine)

PS: The blog has met Jay Sean, y'know...

* That whole paragraph is a bit apocalyptic, don't you think? It might help to imagine it being read by the man who does the voice-over work on film trailers. Some impossibly deep, gravelly voice, trying to make puffed up sentences read like they're carved in 10ft letters across an enormous cliff face.

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