Tag Archives: the pigeon detectives

#1158: The Pigeon Detectives – Say It Like You Mean It

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Well, the last Pigeon Detectives song I wrote about on here was ‘Everybody Wants Me’, just over ten years ago. In that post I mentioned how I didn’t know whether the band were still together. It’s a sentiment I still have today. They are, according to Wikipedia, and even released an album last year. I’m not sure if anyone, apart from their fans, are wondering what the band are up to these days. But there was a time in those mid/late-2000s where they were sort of the talk of the town. The band’s 2007 debut album Wait for Me was a wildly popular one in the UK, and almost a year to the day of its release came the second album Emergency. It did just all right in comparison. But that’s where you’ll find ‘Everybody Wants Me’ and today’s song, ‘Say It Like You Mean It’.

I only really know this song because it was released as the third and final single from Emergency, and its music video got the obligatory play on MTV2 during the mornings or whatever. But that’s not to say I only came to like it through some sort of Stockholm syndrome situation. When it came to their singles, The Pigeon Detectives usually delivered the goods. Handy with a melody, bursting with energy. They were always fine ones to sing along to. It’s very much the same with ‘Say It Like You Mean It’. I read a comment the other day that said it was their most Strokes-ish song. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t thought of it like that before, because it certainly is, particularly when it comes to the interplay between the rhythm guitar and the lead.

The subject matter isn’t one that I’ve ever heard thought to think to deeply about. The lyrics seem to consist of clichés and typical thoughts ‘n’ feelings that you would find in a song about your standard relationship. And if you like the first minute and 10 seconds of the song, then you’ll certainly like the rest that follows because the verses and refrains never change. But it’s done well. I could never say it’s a bad song. It’s just a shame that it’s the last one by the band that I properly cared about because, after Emergency, the whole UK indie scene kind of died out and everyone, including myself, just moved on to different things. They had us for a while, though. They were all right times.

My iPod #336: The Pigeon Detectives – Everybody Wants Me

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Turns out The Pigeon Detectives released their fourth album just a few months ago. Their fourth. I did not know the band were still together. It is a shame how the indie band from Leeds seemed to fade away after they got so many people excited with their debut album “Wait for Me” released back in 2007. That album, filled with anthems about relationships, got very popular managing to peak at number three in the charts. How could they follow it up? Quite quickly, ‘cos a year later came the second album “Emergency“. People liked that too. Not as much as the first though. Got to number five. And the singles released from it didn’t grab people’s attention like those from the debut too.

“Everybody Wants Me” was the second single from “Emergency” which, I think, is unusual for a track that closes out an album. It is a very easy song to play. Before typing this, I literally learned how to play the track on the guitar because it only consists of four chords (A-B-D-E if you want to know, A-B-D for the verses and E-D-A-D for the bridge in that order).

Overall, “Everybody Wants Me” is a nice song to listen to. Just a standard verse-chorus-verse-bridge (etc etc.) structured track, where the singer moans about all the girls wanting him now he’s famous. He doesn’t want them though. He wants a certain someone. Who that someone is is not told.