I noticed recently, well indulging in a rare dalliance with Radio 1’s top 40 run down, just how much contemporary pop producers pull from all sorts of formerly underground and marginalised musical elements, whether it be breakbeat, dub or industrial, it’s all incorporated into palatable pop portions with overdubbed vocals auto-tuned and compressed to within an inch of their lives and thrust high in the mix so as to grab your attention at all costs. Despite being exposed to so much characterless dross, murdering of various covers and mistreatment of hallowed samples, I remained hopeful as the odd beacon shined amongst the gloom.
‘Gold Digger’ is a modern reworking of 80’s colourful Caribbean tinged, Big Band combo Kid Creole and the Coconut’s track ‘Stool Pigeon’. Embracing its syncopated guitar, funky bassline and rhyme, though replacing the original delivery with cheeky verging on acerbic lyrics -“Well she was real plain, had no brain and had no dough, but know she can roll in it and watch her boobs grow”, taking swipes at the kind of vapid talentless celebrities that ironically these girls may end up rubbing shoulders with should they make inroads into entertainment business.
While it may not exactly hold up as a paragon of post-modernity, its knowing lyrics regarding WAGS and hollow celebrity culture, reinforce that evidently the naivety of pop starlets have long since vanished, instead a savvier mercenary spirit prevails, with the 15 minutes of fame maxim being held up as the ultimate ideal and exploited for all it’s worth in a ephemeral landscape of short-lived dreams.
The girls may just have some staying power though, affording more time to sniff at erstwhile compromised X-Factor cohorts. Clocking in at 2 minutes 53 seconds, it zips and bounces along in manner that can’t fail to set your foot tapping and although it may be a reworking it feels fresh and contemporised, leaving the girls plenty of room to stamp their sassy sizzle over it. The prominent bass drums and percussion reinforce the “whoa aye oh” hook, and as the electronically affected vocal refrain “Gold Digger” fades in, it feels reminiscent of Madonna’s vocorder omnipresence (Music circa). Everything is kept this side of minimal as far as pop records go, melodies cross over with the glitch accented synth fading in and out, as the music ticks over nicely without detracting from ladies in question.
It remains to be seen if their snide jibes at celebrity don’t come back to haunt them as the PR spin machine works their magic on them, but for now it’s worth giving them the benefit of the doubt, hoping they can deliver more promising sassy singles while making their mark on the pop charts, possible nudging past a few WAGS and wannabes on their way.
