If I Let You Go
Come with me for a stroll along an IRISH BEACH! Tick follows tock follows tick etc, a horse appears after literally 10 seconds so we know that we are in IRELAND with IRELAND’S biggest boyband since the last one. It’s not raining though and no-one is drinking buckfast with an acid chaser so perhaps this is PRETEND IRELAND.
They’re making more of Brian in this video. Dressed in white, his tall figure is plonked in the foreground for us like a lighthouse on that murky beach, his fringe scanning this way and that in search of lost ships. The rest of them are doing quite well in the neutral Burton menswear stakes.
Once you’ve got to the end of the video (no skipping! I WILL KNOW IF YOU HAVE SKIPPED), try and work out what the boys and their leprechaun chums are building out of all that driftwood. Telegraph poles? Something to do with Scientology? Perhaps they are a tribute to Frosta, She-Ra Princess Of Power’s best mate (or was it worst enemy) whose weapon thing that came with the toy looked like a blue version of those wooden structures, and shot out icicle death rays:
Whatever they’re meant to be it seems like a lot of effort to just bugger off and leave them there without even attaching lanterns to them and having a ‘night scene’ at the end of the video. 3/10.
Anyway, enough visual nonsense. Let’s listen to the song, shall we?
“If I Let You Go” has a very strange transition from verse to chorus. Even though you know *something* must be coming up after the bum-bum-bum-bum-bum PAUSE, the following ‘BUT IF I’ sharply shifts up a couple of notes. It’s a bit of a jolt after the super-bland guitar intro, which is very Boyzone-ish in nature - not surprising given this is an Elofsson/Kreuger/Magnussen job. It’s not a proper key change - that comes at around 2.48 - and most of the chorus melody follows the predictable ABBA lines. Go up here, and down there, chuck in a minor 7th for the penultimate chord. I can confirm that after three listens I could hum you 95% of the chorus so it gets a tick for catchiness.
What about the lyrics? Surely the Loife cannot be mulling over the prospect of DUMPING someone! No of course not. These lovely lads will never abandon you, even if you WANT to leave and have made sure you are ‘worlds apart’. Otherwise they will ‘take the easy way out’ i.e. top themselves. Further inspection suggests that’s a little unfair - rather than being possessive/unhinged stalkers, the boys are just trying to pluck up the courage to state their true feelings. Awwwww. It’s just Brian’s FACE that is making you think they’re creepy!
