“How can I be sure, in a world that’s constantly changing?” – this is one of the great pop questions. Who’s for real? Who’s leading me on? Who isn’t going to take me down? Will I still love you tomorrow? Here’s a teenpop idol singing it, and singing it well – Dusty Springfield sang it better, in the version I knew first, but Cassidy does a creditable job. Vulnerability is generally one of teenpop’s strongest suits because teenpop stars are always vulnerable. Cassidy sings to a fanbase who are making their investment in him, and he’s telling them, if you take your love away it might destroy me. Cynical, perhaps, but no less honest for that.
Of course, the way the question’s phrased takes it wider: our lives move so fast, and often pop is a celebration of that, an exultant shout as the wave surges forward and we somehow keep our footing. But there’s also the moments where the fear behind the exultation comes quietly through a crack and more rarely pop mirrors those too. The soft lonely pulse at the start of this record and Cassidy’s shy murmur captures one such moment and the rest of the song shrinks back from it into (still attractive) bluster.
Score: 6
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