My reflex reaction to this next number one is to wince and think ‘Oh God, no…’
You’re Beautiful, by James Blunt (his 1st and only #1)
5 weeks, from 17th July – 21st August 2005
Such a kicking has this song, and its singer, taken in the public imagination. It is an uncool song – I’ve always viewed it as a ‘Lady in Red’ for the 21st century – by an uncool (and rather posh) singer-songwriter. It is the softest of soft rock. It is middle-class mum rock. It is music for people who don’t actually like music…
But is any of that really fair? Once I get over myself, can I enjoy ‘You’re Beautiful’? Let’s see. The languorous acoustic guitar riff is on-hold muzak. James Blunt’s voice is reedy (and, yes, very posh), and the way he trills the title line is highly annoying. The lyrics are creepy, all about stalking a girl on the underground… She smiled at me on the subway, She was with another man, But I won’t lose, Won’t sleep all night, ‘Cause I’ve got a plan… And in the second verse there is the most incongruous example of swearing in a number one single, ever. Why did he have to be fucking high? It’s so out of place in a song this gentle, that it’s either terrible writing, or a terribly misguided attempt to add some ‘edge’, or both.
So, yes. Or I mean, no. This is crap. Still. It was crap then, and it is crap now. Bland, limp, lifeless sludge with lyrics that either creep you out, or that don’t make sense. I do think that the melody is nice, and that with different words, different production, and a different singer, this could be a decent song. But that it is a lot of ‘differents’… And then Blunt went and followed this up with the even drippier, and even more annoying, ‘Goodbye My Lover’.
But, here’s the thing. I really like James Blunt. He comes across as a down-to-earth, engaging person. He’s an ex-Army captain, who saw active duty in Kosovo, and seems to have his singing career fully in perspective. Once he’d made millions from this song, and the accompanying ‘Back to Bedlam’ album, he moved to Ibiza and started dating supermodels. He is well aware of his luck, and forms part of an interesting phenomenon involving British artists who record generally dull music but who are funny, engaging, and down to earth when not singing (see also Adele and Lewis Capaldi).
Plus we do have to recognise that Blunt almost completely redeemed himself for inflicting ‘You’re Beautiful’ on us, by releasing the wonderful ‘1973’ a couple of years later. Since then he has only had one further UK Top 10, and that’s probably for the best, but I wish him nothing but happiness.
One final thing to mention about ‘You’re Beautiful’, and one of the reasons why it felt like it hung around for forever and a day, is its six week climb to #1. It was the slowest ascent to the top for over six years (since Steps’ ‘Tragedy’), and a sign that download sales – introduced three months or so earlier – were changing the way that the charts moved. During the remainder of the 2000s, records climbing to number one became much more common, in a huge shift from the ‘airplay for months then enter at the top’ days of the previous decade.
This song is not good, not good at all. I don’t hate it, but it’s not one I really like. I remember as a kid people in the schoolyard substituting the lyrics for this song with things like “you’re pitiful” or “you’re undeniable” or “you’re bountiful”. And James Blunt seems freaking hilarious. It is quite bizarre to think this is one of the few rock songs – and this is barely even rock – to top the R&B/hip hop heavy Hot 100 in the US during the 2000s.
This style of alt-rock-tinged soft rock was very big in the 2000s. Soundtrackcore, grocerycore music. Music for moms. I’m not against this 2000s soft rock/alt-rock on principle. I suspect you must hate “Bad Day” like a lot of the world by Daniel Powter but I absolutely love that song. And I love Coldplay and I really like Snow Patrol.
Bad Day is one of the worst songs ever written. It was in the charts alongside this, I remember. They may even have been at #1 and #2 together. Coldplay and Snow Patrol, while definitely bed wetter indie, have their edgier moments. ‘Spitting Games’ is a great, fairly rocking tune.
First #1 that was also #1 in Billboard by a non-US artist since “Candle in the Wind 97”
Didn’t know that. Thanks!
Agreed, its terrible but he seems cool and self-aware in his interviews.
I’m going to be putting t’other viewpoint over for this one and Blunty. Not just rhyming slang anymore with some other folk named Hunt or suchlike these days 🙂 I liked You’re Beautiful and bought the album, which I would describe as “pleasant” and “with some nice tunes”, but I think the video and army background was a large part of his appeal – the music was rather unexpectedly “sensitive” and “feely” for someone on service, pretty sure that was catnip to ladies of a certain age. In retrospect it was of its time, but I am still pretty much a fan of his post-Bedlam stuff, it has a more European sound to it, more pop-beat and is more re-playable. He does the odd ballad still, and Monster seems to be the one that touches folk, for his relationship with his dad, I find it relateable. But on the whole I can listen to once in a while or skip this track, as he does with wit, always worth a laugh!
Unlike that Daniel Powter track which I still find ploddingly grating. That one I have to turn off before I explode…sorry those who like it!!
Interesting point. I thought of his army background as a selling point in a unique sort of way, not in a sex symbol way, but you’re right. And ‘You’re Beautiful’ is exactly the sort of soft rock that these ‘ladies of a certain age’ would stick in their trolley in Tesco or ASDA while doing the weekly shop. Not to stereotype a whole subsection of females, but… I think I’m close to the mark.
Haha there really is nothing redeeming about this one! James Blunt and Adam Levine both have this braying vocal tone that I just can’t stand
~ Alasdair