Doncha Know by ‘GIFTSHOP’ “It’s a brilliant song and it grows on you more and more as it moves along”
This song opens up with a really interesting and creative soundscape. The fusion of the beat and the bass and the additional, organic instrumentation, makes for an interesting, alt-folk ambiance that lays the foundation well for the song that emerges. It’s a great song, the ‘interesting’ element continues to grow, the melody has a certain simplicity but the lines are broken into the long and the short, so you follow it along, and then the space at the end of each idea draws you to pause and really take it all in. The story line too has so much about it that is real and unexpected, effectively combining the accessible, all-inclusiveness of pop songwriting, with a much more personal and mysterious sentiment that occasionally offers details from a characterful reality.
As you listen to the song, the melody and the style of the vocal performance have a fairly nostalgic feel to them. However, everything else about the song is far from vintage. There’s a colourful freshness to the experience that makes it really stand out. You’re almost certain to recognise this again after hearing it just once, and this would be from a distance, even just quietly in the background. It’s a brilliant song and it grows on you more and more as it moves along.
The switch from the verse to the hook melody has a satisfying sense of resolve, so you get great, effective songwriting, layered on top of originality and unpredictability. It’s not easy to successfully achieve all of this without risking losing that personal touch or that thing that listeners can relate to. It makes for a refreshing and quite addictive song. It has the individuality of the likes of Twist In My Sobriety or Somebody That I Used to Know, though lighter on the mind and fairly joyful to experience.
By Rebecca Cullen
Rebecca is a Musician and writer from Manchester, UK, with an MA in Song Writing
