okay i was gonna comment on the Cowell poo poo fest but i thought id go listen to the thing first.
I’ll pay cash money right now to get Rod Stewart singing the whole thing. This is a glorious Mike Mills melody all the way i’m guessing , and defending REM is easy once you look past the celebrity of Stipe.
So it’s a great song, whew got that out of the way.
As far as the recording, it was vanilla- and honestly for a single featuring vocal performances that’s how it should be. Other than Rod, I didnt recognize or was too taken with anybody else except Boyle who just oozes with technical perfection. You can actually see the lines and the dotted quarter notes pour out of her mouth if you look hard enough.
While listening I wiki’d Cowell and it turns out his dad got him a job in the mailroom at EMI and worked his way up from there. So, my point was gonna be has Cowell ever had a hands-on hit record, and the answer seems to be no. I can’t find any evidence of Simon in the studio working on a track.
What he does have is an Ear with a capital E and he got behind the right projects by using that ear to hire the right people to make hits FOR him. Gotta give it to the guy.