Vince Lindley’s Party Life
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/vince-lindley-1/party-life-by-vince-lindley-feat-k-trik-e-lyric-video
I used to think that it wasn’t really that hard to make a party anthem song. Pop and electronic artists have made hundreds of them and you can mark a good artist by how many party anthems they have managed to produce. They don’t have to be soul deep, they just need to get into your skin and get you jumping. A good catchy line and a beat that you can hook yourself up to is enough. I would argue that making a good party anthem is a lot easier than making an emotionally ridden single that banks on making a connection with its listeners. For a party anthem you just need to build up some positive energy and get people bouncing. You don’t even really need to be original, the lyrics can be recycled, respliced or even remixed. Hell, you can do the same with your beat, too.
Despite all of this, Vince Lindley’s newest party anthem Party Life couldn’t even get my head nodding. His beat is unoriginal, yeah I know I said it doesn’t have to be, but more than that it feels dated, it felt like the kind of thing you would hear in a club ten years ago. It’s too fresh and poppy and I spent my entire first listen through wondering just what song it reminded me of… I couldn’t figure it out. His lyrics are weak at best. All he needed was one good inspiring line. One good hook that makes you say, “This is my Friday night jam, man!” The closest he came to that was saying it was Friday night in the song and that is not enough to make it stick (otherwise Rebecca Black’s Friday wouldn’t have gone viral for being a joke…)
Vince Lindley does some weird key change between his chorus and verses, but the harmony that he creates is off and it makes the transition strange and uncomfortable. The first time I heard it I cringed so bad I stopped the song and started from the beginning again. His featured guest, K-Trik-E has a short little rap section just before the two minute mark of the song. His little input is equally uninspired and came off like he was someone who had never been to a party and based his entire understanding of clubbing, partying and nightlife off of popular party anthems.
Vince tries to mix it up in his song, he cuts the energy at 1:30 to let K-Trik-E do his thing, and then at 2:30 drops it even more to try and make a build up, but even that failed to get me moving. They successfully started to build, but there was no drop instead he cuts the build with some electronic stuttering effect and then returns to the entirely forgettable chorus. The song feels too calculated and misses the mark because it lacks spontaneity and surprise. The timing of each section feels like they had sat down with a pen and paper and allotted thirty second blocks to chorus one, thirty seconds to K-Trik-E’s first verse, thirty seconds to… well you get the point. For a good song, yeah, you sure as hell have to do that, but you also have to hide it and make sure that it isn’t apparent.
Overall, I didn’t think much of Vince Lindley’s new ‘single.’ I guess that was probably apparent from my review. I realize that this was far from a good review and I know that reading this as a young artist would be difficult. I write this next part to Vince directly. Don’t give up. You clearly want to live the party life and have put some amount of time and effort into this endeavour. Just because this song sucked (maybe I will eat those words and it will become a smash hit) doesn’t mean your next one will too.
M. Kaiser
