Music Review: SoHo "Hippychick"
SoHo
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Hippychick
Album: Goddess
Year: 1990
Pauline Cuff spurns her small-minded boyfriend in the modish "Hippychick."
A sample of The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now" opens the single. To be really nitpicky, it begins the same way The Smiths' song does. However, it creates a sense of deja vu. Then, 30 seconds later it goes away and doesn't return.
In the first verse, Cuff tells her boyfriend she has difficult things to say to him. She says he has to see it from her point of view. Then, she calls him out on his nasty behavior. She tells him that he lives for controlling women, specifically her. She won't allow herself to dictated to anymore.
In the chorus, she asserts that she won't have sex wit him. Her love isn't for free and she's not that kind of girl.
In the second verse, she says they will discuss breaking up in his basement. He will be playing mind games with her to get her to stay. However, he will not let her go unless she sleeps with him. She could protest, but it will only make the situation worse for her. He says he loves her and it's why he's making her have sex with him. She retorts that she hasn't loved him in a long time. For relationships should've have to be filled with pain and hurt to survive.
The chorus is sung again.
A detached Cuff says that it's difficult to break free. She doesn't want to be that girl.
Cuff wants out of her abusive relationship. She thought she would try to be rational. Talking to him about his degradation of her will send the message home to her. However, like plenty of opinions of hers, he brushes them off. He's to be with her and that's final.
She alludes he rapes her and has throughout the entire relationship. However, it's possibly the main reason she hates him so much. His short fuse and put-downs damage her. But the shame and humilation she feels afterward pales in comparison.
Cuff's vocals are cold and weary. Yet there's a fiery strength. She's not ready to give up. But by the end, after he rapes her again, she's hopeless.
The music arrangement is detached and artsy which complements Cuff's vocals. However, the Smiths' sample is useless. It's there for less than a minute and swiftly gone. It serves no other purpose than to trick the listeners into staying tuned onto the radio. The single doesn't need the sample. It has a strong enough beat to stand it on its own. Also noteworthy is that Moby's "South Side (Album version)" sounds incredibly similar. The scratchy drum beats are nearly identical to the other.
Despite the one fault, "Hippychick" is smarter than it sounds.
Album: Goddess
Year: 1990
Pauline Cuff spurns her small-minded boyfriend in the modish "Hippychick."
A sample of The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now" opens the single. To be really nitpicky, it begins the same way The Smiths' song does. However, it creates a sense of deja vu. Then, 30 seconds later it goes away and doesn't return.
In the first verse, Cuff tells her boyfriend she has difficult things to say to him. She says he has to see it from her point of view. Then, she calls him out on his nasty behavior. She tells him that he lives for controlling women, specifically her. She won't allow herself to dictated to anymore.
"It's hard to tell you how I feel without hurting you/So try to think about yourself the way that I see you/Your life revolves around a force of oppression/And I won't deal with true blue devils of correction."
In the chorus, she asserts that she won't have sex wit him. Her love isn't for free and she's not that kind of girl.
"Got no flowers for your gun, no hippychick/Won't make love to change your mind, no hippychick/No hippychick, no hip hip hip hip hip."
In the second verse, she says they will discuss breaking up in his basement. He will be playing mind games with her to get her to stay. However, he will not let her go unless she sleeps with him. She could protest, but it will only make the situation worse for her. He says he loves her and it's why he's making her have sex with him. She retorts that she hasn't loved him in a long time. For relationships should've have to be filled with pain and hurt to survive.
"Today we'll sit here drinking coffee in your incident room/Tonight you'll close the door/And lock me in that bare bulb gloom/Love it ain't something riding on a motorbike/And love, I stopped loving you since the miners' strike."
The chorus is sung again.
A detached Cuff says that it's difficult to break free. She doesn't want to be that girl.
"It's hard, it's hard/It's hard, it's hard/No hippychick, no hip hip hip hip hip/No hippychick, no hip hip hip hip hip/No hippychick, no hip hip hip hip hip/No hippychick."
Cuff wants out of her abusive relationship. She thought she would try to be rational. Talking to him about his degradation of her will send the message home to her. However, like plenty of opinions of hers, he brushes them off. He's to be with her and that's final.
She alludes he rapes her and has throughout the entire relationship. However, it's possibly the main reason she hates him so much. His short fuse and put-downs damage her. But the shame and humilation she feels afterward pales in comparison.
Cuff's vocals are cold and weary. Yet there's a fiery strength. She's not ready to give up. But by the end, after he rapes her again, she's hopeless.
The music arrangement is detached and artsy which complements Cuff's vocals. However, the Smiths' sample is useless. It's there for less than a minute and swiftly gone. It serves no other purpose than to trick the listeners into staying tuned onto the radio. The single doesn't need the sample. It has a strong enough beat to stand it on its own. Also noteworthy is that Moby's "South Side (Album version)" sounds incredibly similar. The scratchy drum beats are nearly identical to the other.
Despite the one fault, "Hippychick" is smarter than it sounds.
