Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad: Massad ‘Tear My Heart Out’
Every week, a panel of writers for The Corner will focus on a bunch of recently released local singles and grade them. We call it Great Sounds Great; Bad Sounds Bad. Read through the panelists thoughts below and let us know what you think of the song in the comments section.
[Grade: 3.7]
Maryann Savage: Vampires don’t tear your heart out — that’s not a thing. That’s Aztec priests, isn’t it? That would be cool, if he said his girlfriend was an Aztec priest. This is the kind of music that happens when very young, good singers, who perform in international youth choirs, go into the studio with zero desire to actually make an original song. They should just cover stuff. This sounds like what Berlusconi would choose to play on his TV stations. Or in his holiday villa. While seducing Cherie Blair. (Massad has a cute plump face, and it’s nice how cakemakers dominate the credits at the end of the video.) [2]
Josef Can’t: Things that this video reminds me of: 1. Josh Groban/Michael Bublé etc. (is it still called Popera?). 2. That new Drew Neemia video. 3. Russell Brand’s character in Get Him to the Greek. Combined amount of respect I have for the music of all of those things: [2]
Dan Taipua: Way back when we reviewed ‘Maori Boy’ I put out this line about youtube being a valid genre of music, and zeitgeist being its qualitative measure. We can gently apply the same principle here, though there’s a few things about Massad that are worth mentioning. Firstly – Glee, Adam Lambert, Michael Buble and Mika are so popular that they have to meet in a localized nexus – this isn’t a new thing, The Ronettes => The Spinettes, Tom Jones => John Rowles, Nirvana => Silverchair.
The most interesting thing about Massad is that he embodies YouTube as a medium – he represents amateur stardom as an end-point, projecting a level of achievement that’s actually achievable. Look at it this way: Every day thousands of teenagers get on their Tumblr and review the latest Lady Gaga single, and hundreds of them will record themselves singing it in front of a webcam. None of them will become as famous as Lady Gaga, but it’s actually a pretty big achievement to become a famous Lady Gaga fan – getting reblogs for your words, getting views and comments for your videos, gaining followers on your Twitter.
Without double-checking, I’ll bet that the top page of comments for ‘Tear My Heart Out’ are not only positive, but gushing – with one comment expressing disbelief that anyone would click the dislike button. That’s exactly the type of reaction this song should generate, and exactly the one that it does.
P.S. NZ on Air’s new ‘Making Tracks’ scheme will produce more and more of this type of single. [6]
Dan Trevarthen: Feels like there’s a gap in the market for what he’s going for, which counts in his favour for sure. Plus his demographic could be anything from tweens to grandmas yah? His sweetly cooed delivery in the verses rules, but I’d like either a beefed up chorus to really put it over the top, or a more raw take on it. Good hook but either go for a stripped back, raw vocal or a tuned, filled out vocal. Just not somewhere in between where it’s kinda stripped back but sounds tuned on the high notes. The line “you’re some kind of vampire” really sneaks in under the radar, and I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not – most quotable line but you wouldn’t know it. As a singer he sells it and it’s a decent first outing. [6]
Luke Warm: Get over it dude, I don’t wanna listen to you crying. I’m not gonna rate this – that’s as much sympathy as I can spare. Not for his heartache, but for his terminal crapness.
Hussein Moses: As a pop song, this suffers from being a little too vague. There’s heaps to complain about in the top 40 singles chart but for the most part, artists that make it that far have distinguished themselves pretty well. It’s easy to discuss the reasons why ‘Like Water’, ‘Love Love Love’ and ‘Loud’ (all local singles in the chart this week) work really well as pop singles – each one is specifically crafted for maximum impact. Establish who you want your audience to be, even if they’re not yours yet. That’s not the only problem here though – the verses turn Owl City real quick and there’s too little power in the chorus. He looks pretty Michael Bublé too (oh, what do you know). [3]
Tim Gentles: Somehow don’t know quite how to place this. The whole thing reeks of institutionalised NZ-On-Air-core whose precepts have been completely internalised – dude came up through Play It Strange for goodness’ sake – but I was surprised at how endearingly babyfaced the singer looked when he came on in the video, and thoroughly enjoyed the 808 handclaps in the chorus. Points for the jam as fake blood and binge eating moments in the video too. [5]
Michael McClelland: A dude found a 60s ballad karaoke machine in the 90s and wrote his first ‘hook’. He has a cool yet strangely MOR sounding voice, which is what completes the tragedy – if he used it to his advantage, as well as trading the old-school gimmicks (and AUT media student music video) for some cheap MIDI and Pro Tools tricks it could easily sound like any radio hit. But it doesn’t, and he’s going to have to settle for Rockquest-level ‘prestige’ and breakfast TV appearances. [2]
first
Oh no you di’n't
brad sounds bad?
that drum beat in the pre-chorus is the worst thing i’ve ever heard
You know how sometimes you listen to music when you’re feeling down and it makes you feel better, well this has the opposite effect.
Please tell Massad NZ does not need it’s own version of Rebecca Black, it’ll save his parents money in the long run.
Oh and lovely to see the NZ On Air logo, makes you feel proud to be a New Zealander.
Massad is still as school, he is about 16 and is very much at the beginning of his gig.
I like this feature and it makes entertaining reading, but is going all out on a debut release from a kid very fair?
Don’t discount the fortitude of a Sacred Heart boy who sings pop ballads on a national stage. It’s not an easy path to carve.
Kids like Massad don’t quit – that he’s tough enough to have come this far speaks to that.
Are you saying that the panel shouldn’t review anything from from musicians under a certain age, or does it come down to how accomplished they are as musicians, or something else?
Probably just me being a bit of a dad guy. No hard and fast rules to offer sorry. Perhaps if they are just starting it out it might be good to hold back from the full treatment until they have a few releases under the belt/have left school.
Not trying to tell anyone how to do their thing, I was actually wondering if anyone else wondered if giving the youngster this kind of a going over was 100% cool or if maybe it is just me. I felt the same about Rebecca Black, so I may be in a pretty small minority.
I know where you’re coming from but it seems short-sighted to me considering he’s had NZ On Air funding for this.I’m not sure how much exactly but I guess it would be at least five grand. Shouldn’t these guys/girls be able to critique something once it’s on that level no matter what age the artist is? I think so. I don’t think the writers seem prepared to go easy on anyone which is probably why it gets all these comments.
With Miley
Bound to break a million teenage hearts, this is a nifty little “smoove pop” number wrapped around a deliciously bittersweet vocal by someone I’ve never previously heard of, but whose name is now firmly etched on my radar. I’m not surprised this was universally panned by the relatively decrepit (and now achingly predictable) panel. As I said in my last review, this just isn’t for them. Massad has a nice, mellow voice which can still emote when needed and the song itself goes down real easy. Reminds me a lot of jazz-lite MOR kingpins Jamie Cullum or Michael Buble (I even spy a cover version of the latter on his youtube channel) and Massad definitely looks the part as well. Going by his name, I imagine his parents or grandparents were immigrants to this country. There’s something really nice about the sort of cultural amalgamation and gives Massad a point or reference that his blander peers don’t have. Video was probably done on the cheap, but looks pretty smart. And Massad never falls into cheese with his performance. All in all, his youthful naivety lends the song the right kind of innocence it calls for. I hope he doesn’t “mature” into the kind of electro-rubbish that older local pop acts mire themselves in but for now, this is a promising start from a talented local youngster.
7/10
Note: Maybe this track should have been reviewed by those commenting over on the Top Model page of this site, given their predilection for harshly critiquing, and often abusing, young teenagers on screen.
agree (well, mostly. i hope i never find myself writing “deliciously bittersweet” or “youngster”) with grant. mental.
the song’s okay overall but the chorus is really quite weak.
he also has a nice and fairly distinctive voice. and he’s not drew neemia.
although – a 16 year old male that likes and aspires to be like Michael Buble? bonkers.
“although – a 16 year old male that likes and aspires to be like Michael Buble? bonkers.”
It’s all about context. Let me rephrase what you just said:
A sixteen (!) year old son of second or third generation Arab immigrants to this country, aspires to be a crooner in a pop world dominated with the crass and the vacuous, and sings his way into the hearts of a million middle class Kiwi girls hearts.
Looking at it like that, he sounds a whole lot more punk than Luke ‘i ape my influences and wear tattered clothing that belies my middle class roots because being a white male in our society is really, really hard’ Warm!
i can tell, intuitively and unequivocally, that you have difficulty believing yourself to be worthwhile, but you really do have an aptitude for condescension.
all teenagers are ass holes and suck at everything, I would know coz I am one, fuck you Grant
It is a bit painfully amateurish, if Kimbra’s team came in could it be an extreme makeover situation? Big reveal, cut to now suddenly awesome? I’d probably be okay with this guy taking my daughter out. Look kid, she’s not some kind of vampire she’s just a chick.
Interesting comments from Dan, shot bro. So it’s meant to not be that good, is that part of the convention? woah deja vu, buzzy, I better get back to work.
Dane Rumble used to be a rapper, maybe down the track once he’s got his chops he can pull out something new.
I wouldn’t say ‘not that good’, more like ‘pretty good’.
[6] is a pretty good grade.
Could be time to get some new panelists…I’m not keen, but since these threads have been getting a bit of action & they are very entertaining, you run the risk of fizzing out too soon if the reviewers don’t get better/more diverse….just my five cents.
oh and is that the Creep/Air That I Breathe chord progression? neat-o
Yikes. Needs a lot more production, especially on the vocal. Even then it would still be forgettable, but not as immediately offputting. What’s the target audience? [2]
The song sounds kinda….empty…like it was found on a kareoke machine.
This guy must clean up at talent shows. Definitely a likely big youtube success waiting for a few fancy production bits. Which is all kind of upsetting since its pretty bland but I guess that’s the way the world works right now.
i think that songs get a base score of 5 and then points are taken off or added, at least that’s how i think about it. this seems almost totally fine. the only thing i’d take points off for are the lyrics because of the stale imagery. there’s nothing abject about that guy or his song. i mean. it’s not aggressive enough to be annoying (which is what i find really grating about some of the rock bros who have been on here recently (that they are trying to be this [tough thing] or something, and just come off soggy)). he’s not trying to be something that he’s not. he’s a good looking teenager with a nice voice and that’s what this song is trying to achieve. there’s nothing super interesting or innovative or new, right. so i wouldn’t give him extra points there. “drew neemia” is a pretty important name to drop. because he’s not drew. he achieves everything that drew fails at, in that he’s likeable. that seems like the hardest thing for this kind of nz music. like, it seems really hard to not be the bleakest shit imaginable when you’re a new zealand musician swimming up ‘the mainstream’ and taking yrself fully seriously (not crutch of self-deprecation/irony). so i give him back the point he lost.
[5]
anyone no a website tht has the guitar chords to this song if u could also put up a link i wuld be incredibly grateful … thanks ! :)
I reckon ask Massad on FB or Twitter – I’m sure he’d be able to sort you out :)
http://www.facebook.com/massadfans
http://twitter.com/massad
Massad looks like he is screaming for his life