Musical Wednesdays: The Noisettes

"Here's a theory for you to disregard completely. Music, you know, true music, not just rock 'n' roll, it chooses you. It lives in your car, or alone, listening to your headphones -- you know, with the vast, scenic bridges and angelic choirs in your brain."

-Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs, "Almost Famous"

Sometimes you hear a song, and it's like you were meant to hear that song. Did anyone else watch "Pete and Pete" when they were younger? There's an episode where Little Pete discovers his favorite song and then sets out to recreate it. I felt like that the first time I heard the Noisettes' "Never Forget You." As I briefly mentioned on a previous Wednesday, I have an idea for a novel about a girl group that forms in the mid-1960s. This song is what they sound like. And as soon as I heard it, I sat in the car, thinking this is how the band sounds in my imagination. Retro, but somehow very contemporary.

Shingai Shoniwa (the Noisettes lead singer) is a former Burlesque performer, and she sounds like no one I've ever heard. She accelerates from this breathy, melodic voice to an awesome growl in no time. And look at that hair. And the dancing in the silhouettes. And the dancing barefoot.

There are a lot of great moments in this song, from the synth-sounding strings calling back to Phil Spector to the bridge, which wavers between this fragile, airy sound to confident soul in the space of twenty seconds. But my absolute favorite...and this is going to be a weird one, but I love these moments in music...is Shingai Shoniwa's laugh in the verse after the bridge. It's like a physical break with the bridge, the song indicating that the quiet and contemplative part is over, and we're back to rock and roll, which is physical and fun and slightly maniacal. I just love this song. I meant to not go on for too long, but then I went and used that Lester Bangs quote and that went right out the window. So I'll wrap this up and say this: enjoy the video. Also enjoy it the second and third time you watch it...it's that catchy.