• Commercial and uninspired take
• Popular Moombahton arrangement
• Catchy to extent, only to turn repetitive
Alright, the fact that electronic remakes are driving the wheels of a creatively dreary scene is becoming more pertinent with passing days. Mainstream dance music is thriving on the trend of washed out and desperate Slap House remixes (as we saw with a recent case of Wasback), and continues as digital streaming has brought upon both boon and a bane – more exposure, thus a method of incurring huge amount of streams by sampling renowned songs from yesterday. While a few strike out original, many other releases mundanely work on a hit and place it on a flat, cut-and-dried structure for audience consumption. One such is the latest single “Bang Bang” from Fedde Le Grand and 22Bullets.
If you have come across this song already, then recognizing it won’t be a peril. Famously known to the current generation of listeners as “Shot Me Down” from French veteran David Guetta, it featured an exquisite vocal presence from Skylar Grey. Now I admit, this early 10’s version took inspiration from the ‘66 original sung by the iconic songstress Cher, and positioned it roughly against a contrasting Big Room House drop which has candidly aged over time. Yet somehow, this partly inauthentic approach has a fond memory with most, including me. Pardoning the blatant Electro arrangements that blew up thanks to one seventeen-year old Dutch native the year prior, it was the first time a veteran Dance act had took the risk of revamping it in over five decades. Then, you may ask at this point, what went wrong with the current rendition we are talking about?
Firstly, two names such as Fedde Le Grand and 22Bullets have become synonymous with energetic productions. The former is a heavyweight, who has numerous hits under his belt for groove-heavy works and the other is an up and coming alias who constructed his reputation with various notable signings on imprints like Dharma Recordings and Hexagon. Ingenuity is an important factor to be expected in outcomes of such promising synergy, isn’t? Au contraire, “Bang Bang” resorts to the safest option alternative of DJ Snake-esque Moombahton schematics. There are pointers for which this track still earns a middling score; for instance the somewhat catchy lead hook, which becomes repetitive in barely two-minutes. Further, there isn’t anything more to the platter, and emphasizes solely on the vocal cover and aesthetics from the former evergreen, declining a genuine attempt.
Extending this article on how lackadaisical this remake is would color it as derogative, so I will leave it at this: “Bang Bang” makes an half-baked first impression. There was potential, something which hopefully will be utilized in the instrumentals revealed in future by both parties involved.
What do you think?
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