Now Playing: Daddy – ‘Love In The Old Days’
Daddy - Love In The Old Days
Now Playing – every week, a roundtable of our writers will give their views on one of the recently-released new tracks. It’s as simple as that! If you want to tell us what you think of the song, feel free to leave a comment below.
Track: ‘Love in the Old Days’ by Daddy
Average grade: 3.8
Richard: I remember reading that James Franco was massively interested in the works of the beat generation, and the sixties inspired spoken word drawl about Franco’s parents falling in love that opens the track has that cod-sentimental ‘Wonder Years’ commentary feel about it. More Kojak than Kerouac, ‘Love In The Old Days’ is a spectacular disappointment and for all James Franco’s creative energy, and productivity, this is just another big bag of so flipping what? 2/10
Thomas: There’s nothing that reeks of vanity project more than a film star making an album, but against all expectations James Franco’s new band is not at all bad. ‘Love in the Old Days’ is very self-consciously retro, but it recreates a very simple Motown/blues sound remarkably well, and has a lurching, killer riff to play with. The result is more strange than nostalgic, suited to a David Lynch film, which is never a bad thing. 8/10
Kenny: Like the bulk of James Franco’s on screen roles this is a pretty bland effort in a mildly R&B vein, although it might benefit from a decent re-mix or two. The lyrics are pretentious drivel and overall it’s forgettable stuff so 1/10.
Anna: I quite like the laid-back melody, his voice and the old-fashioned American vibes. The spoken word parts are falling into the trying-too-hard area and that deducts from the overall atmosphere and the intentional naivety of the lyrics. 6/10
Craig: William Shatner would have done this much better. At least it would have been funnier. Nostalgic hetero-normative schlock, as far as I’m concerned. 1/10
Stef: The thing is, I like the concept. I love spoken word songs, and I like the idea of those backing vocals singing the title, the music that happily struts forward, and someone speaking over it in an almost Nick Cave-ish way. However, I have to admit that the topic — how love was more true in the old days while-it-really-wasn’t-see-Williams-and-Brando-but-at-least-we-have-those-lying-photographs-that-show-that-love-was-better-in-the-old-days — and the execution of the topic I personally found a tad trite. 5/10
