Tag Archives: more

#986: Daft Punk – One More Time

1 Reply

There’s a clip of a 5/6-year-old me watching Daft Punk’s ‘One More Time’ video just for a moment on Top of the Pops, all the way back in 2001. It might just be a figment of my imagination, but I’m quite sure that it happened. But I wouldn’t have understood what was with all the blue people or why the music video was a cartoon. All the videos I’d seen at that point had people in them. The song reached number two in the charts over here in the UK. But between 2001-2010, I had honestly forgotten that the song had existed until one of my schoolmates spontaneously started singing it in between classes. That act alone reminded me how much of an earworm it was. It was like it had been my favourite song for all those forgotten years. Wasn’t too long that I downloaded Discovery and reaped all the benefits.

‘One More Time’ opens that album. Fair to say, it might just be one of the best album openers to ever exist. Set to chopped up horns and a rhythm section sampled from Eddie Johns’ ‘More Spell on You’, the track is a five-and-a-half celebration of dance and music and a call for people to let loose just once more before letting things come to an end. The beat is repetitive. The lyrics, written and performed by Romanthony, are also recycled on and on. Almost like a skipping record. But the message has to be said clearly for all to hear. We have to celebrate. Don’t stop the dancing. And we can’t stop, because they both make everyone feel so free. A lot of “yeahs” and “come ons” and “all rights” added into the mix, and Romanthony and Daft Punk provide us with a universal hit.

I think the best part about the track, though, is that it isn’t all four-on-the-floor thumping for the duration it lasts for. Things get all spacey around the two-minute mark, where almost all the instruments drop out and leave a soothing synthesizer to play a relaxing chord progression behind Romanthony’s auto-tuned vocals. Brings a huge sense of calm and serenity amongst the partying madness. But of course it can’t last forever, as those horns rise up in the mix again and the good times start all over again. Gotta appreciate Romanthony’s vocals in general. It seems that the vocal take is something of a cut-and-paste job where he sang each phrase individually, which were then sorted into a flowing lyrical piece where each phrase segues into the next. And that’s not to put it down, the technique is awesome. Yes, he’s auto-tuned to oblivion, but for great effect rather than masking a bad vocalist. The result deserves a great chef’s kiss. 20+ years and this track still sounds massive.

#753: The Hives – A Little More for Little You

Leave a reply

Hi there, followers. If you read this whole post until the end you will see a picture of the album that this track can be found on. That will then take you to an Amazon link where you will be able to buy that record, should you feel compelled to do so. I’m going to try and update every post on here so this can be done. I’m not sure whether I should direct them to vinyls, CDs, or MP3 downloads. I mean who listens to CDs nowadays? Please, to anyone reading who would be potentially interested, comment below and tell me which format you would prefer me to link to. Want to try and make this blog more interactive, you know? Thanks for your time. Now onto the song.*

In 2005, ‘A Little More for Little You’ was released as a single from The Hives’ third album Tyrannosaurus Hives. By that time the record had been out for more than a year, and I remember seeing the video for ‘Walk Idiot Walk’ when it was making its first wave on the television and not liking the song very much. So when ‘Little More’ arrived, I was surprised at how catchy and melodic the song was in comparison. (I do like ‘Walk Idiot Walk’ a lot now. A post on that will be done in the far future). The video for ‘Little More’, seen above, was shown quite regularly on MTV2. I wasn’t sure if it was a live performance or a studio recording; further ‘investigation’ showed that it was a mix of both, the banter and audience is live while the song is not.

I always liked ‘Howlin” Pelle Almqvist’s vocals on here. He’s always loose and wild in his delivery and it shows a lot throughout. What also got me into the track at that younger age was the dynamic between the busy verses and the strident choruses. In the verses, one guitar plays on the downbeat while the other plays on the upbeat which creates this jerky rhythm before coming together and playing the same chords in unison when the chorus comes in. I don’t know what it’s about. I’ve always like it sound and always sang along but never thought to look out for its meaning. That goes for a lot of songs that I first saw on TV fifteen years ago which I still listen to now. I don’t see any problem with it, though.

It turns out that The Hives filmed another video for the song. Whether it was before or after the one above, I’m not sure, but the big difference is the audio used was the track as it was first released on the album. I guess, at some point, the band members thought the track didn’t sound as good and could be made a lot better so they re-recorded it. I have to say I do prefer the single version a lot more, though you can hear it for yourself.

*25/08/2020 – I changed my mind about this quite quickly. You’ll find no album cover down here, but you can buy the song from Amazon via a click on the song’s title in the post.**

**15/06/2024 – Forget that footnote too.