Someone should get David Guetta some kevlar (song of the week)

While I tend to be somewhat of a wanker when it comes to music, I can appreciate the odd well-written pop song and I had been noticing that one particular song had been catching my ear a lot recently. Unfortunately, that song — ‘Titanium’ — is by French music producer David Guetta.

Now, I know that tolerance is part of my general mandate and something that I push on this blog fairly often. I also know that ‘Titanium’ is beloved by a number of luminaries, including Queensland Premier Campbell Newman, who said that it was his favourite song during his recent election campaign. Given this, it is with a great deal of regret that I have to say that I cannot tolerate Guetta, or anything by Guetta.

The Eurotrash hack-turned-superstar has built his career by taking passable songs, putting them over a very artificial-sounding drum machine and then adding an electro breakdown every 30 seconds. He is the single worst thing to happen to music in the last decade — and that included a steep drop in record sales, the death of Amy Winehouse, the release of ‘Chinese Democracy’ by Guns ‘N Roses, and Craig Emerson singing.

*shudder*

That’s why I was so happy to stumble across a cover of the song by one young Madilyne “Maddy” Bailey. I had never heard of her before, but having clicked through a few of her videos, it is safe to say that she has a fair amount of talent to her.

Using just her piano and her impressive voice, she gives the song an acoustic rendering that completely de-Guettifies it, revealing the powerful tune underneath all that godawful side-chain compression and arpeggiated synths that he needs to put in so it sounds like “dance music”. The chorus sounds much better without the obligatory/generic breakdowns.

So I applaud Maddy for doing a good song justice, and I recommend that everyone not only plays the video below, but clicks through and spends $1.30 on her song on iTunes. Karnage believes that good music should be supported, so that people make more of it. We would definitely prefer for Maddy to launch a professional music career than to end-up working in a call centre with the other potential greats of our generation.

Oh yeah, the title of this post. Well, here are the lyrics from ‘Titanium’:

I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose
fire away, fire away
ricochet, you take your aim
fire away, fire away
you shoot me down, but I won’t fall
I am titanium
you shoot me down, but I won’t fall
I am titanium

Here’s the rub: titanium is a strong metal, but it is not bulletproof. Bulletproof armour is generally made from kevlar. Mr Guetta is not as safe as he may think.