Fishing for critical angles in songwriting credits is a mostly futile endeavour. You soon learn the sad truth: the distribution of talent and memorable style is as skewed among writers as among everyone else – including the stars and hopefuls they work for. Consistency – never mind individuality – is a rare gift. More likely the trawl through Discogs and Wikipedia reveals the half-forgotten boyband hit as the peak of some toiler’s career. But every so often a partnership between star and writer works, and sometimes in surprising ways. This is the only number one Gregg Alexander – ex New Radicals – wrote for Ronan, but he was heavily involved with every one of the singer’s early solo LPs. And listening to “Life Is A Rollercoaster” it’s easy to hear why. Alexander solved a real problem for Keating: how to make the Irish boyband style work for upbeat songs.
The Boyzone, Westlife and Keating style has up to now been a placid thing – given, at least on paper, to great agonies of the soul, but not blessed with much pep. Standard boyband approaches to uptempo numbers at this point in time didn’t suit those groups. The Cheiron ballad style worked fine, but Backstreet-style scando-pop was too pneumatic, and sounded too young for the wider audience Ronan is after. The other option – pop with a dash of hip-hop, a la Five – seemed far too radical for the Louis Walsh stable (on this occasion, his instincts were surely right).
Gregg Alexander offered a different route. “You Get What You Give” had been a massive hit because its yelping optimism sounded so fresh and unreserved, but its musical roots were a remembrance of the clean, MOR sound of 70s and 80s radio pop. The alt-baiting lyrics – “Courtney Love and Marilyn Manson / You’re all fakes run to your mansions” – underlined Alexander’s reactionary zeal, his desire to present himself as an idealistic new broom ready to spring-clean a cynical, dead-end decade. Marketers would come to brand that kind of earnest enthusiasm as “millennial”, though Alexander himself was well-heeled: his showy contempt for fakery born out of a scrappy career as much as idealism. Having proved his point with a smash, he quit in short order to write for others.
“Life Is A Rollercoaster” – apparently meant for a second New Radicals LP – is a product of that, cut from the same cheerful cloth as “You Get What You Give”. Alexander had no snobbery when it came to picking who to write for, happily bedding down with popular but unfashionable acts – as well as Keating, he wrote hits for Geri Halliwell and Texas. His style is as identifiable on this as Mutt Lange’s was on “Breathless”, and a comfort to the same broad audience: woo-woo backing vocals, a rousing chorus, and a general sense that the world and its challenges can and will be overcome by anyone spirited enough. Despite some strong early hits, Alexander’s star as a professional songwriter fell as the decade continued: for no definite reason, but maybe the world changed enough that his sunshine touch lost its appeal.
Meanwhile “Rollercoaster” is comfortably the best song Ronan’s been involved in, though he lands a little out of his depth. He’s too solid a fellow for the devil-may-care bravado of the record’s most memorable lyric, “Hey Sugar / You almost got us punched in a fight”, he falters and ends up flagging, not vaulting, the line’s slight clumsiness. His performance blunts the record, replacing any bluster with a slight stodginess. Life may well be a rollercoaster, but it’s quite a mild one and you’d certainly feel comfortable letting the kids on.
Score: 6
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…maybe the world changed enough that his sunshine touch lost its appeal.
What if Francis Fukuyama… was a songw oh I did that one
Pleasantly memorable at fifteen years’ distance – I get a tinge of Singing Assembly from it though it’s surely too technically complex for that (and I am just conflating with “When You Say Nothing At All”, see comments passim), but ‘mild playground hit’ is probably a fair description.
I never understood the rush to acclaim the New Radicals. Even though all the upbeat things Tom mentions should be manna to me, the music seemed dull.
But this is pretty good, though it’s certainly not as good as When You Say Nothing At All. (6) feels about right.
The intro to this is the same as one of the remixes of Big Audio Dynamite’s E=MC² (am away, otherwise I’d have linked a youtube here)
I wondered why I responded so positively to the song when I listened to it recently and the revelation that the guy from the New Radicals was involved went a long way to explaining my reaction. What I enjoy about “You Get What You Give” and LIAR is that (to my ears) they draw from the sprung rhythms of Soul/R and B/Gospel which help to give the songs an optimistic bounce. Ronan is the muppet mouthing the words as far as I’m concerned but it’s to the songs credit that I’m not conscious of his vocal mannerisms.
The increasing interaction of production and songwriting teams working with a variety of artists seems to have become a feature of this decade. There are similarities to the Brill Building era and partnerships like Lieber and Stoller but their presence seems increasingly foregrounded.
It has a Philly soul bounce, and the same powerpop undertow as You Get What You Give, but LIAR is lyrically much more “go with the flow” than “don’t give up”. In other words, I think it suits a mainstream singer of laissez faire politics better than Greg Alexander. Gary Barlow could have sung LIAR and I’d still rate it.
After this relatively brave career move, Pete Paphides interviewed Keating and suggested that he should consider covering Racey’s similarly breezy Rest Of My Life. Thinking inside the box personified, Keating assumed he was taking the piss, and did his Alan-Shearer-eyes-narrowing face.
Better than most ex-boybander songs. Maybe it’s the Gregg Alexander factor shining through (YGWYG would’ve been 9/10 from me, FWIW). Still, it has enough of the watered down ex-boybander vocal sound that I can’t get into it too much, so 5/10 from me.
On a different note, it’s bugging me greatly that I can’t figure out which US city appears in the video.
When you can’t figure it out, it’s always Toronto. I’m dizzy just watching it though.
I remember hearing this for the first time and immediately knowing it was going to be huge. That sweet soul / 70s mainstream rock/pop sound was surely the only feasible style for Ronan to go with, though christ knows he’d already gotten away with enough mis-steps, so I’m hesitant to claim any great genius in its choice this time round. Having said this his vocals are still only ‘tolerable’ – and this only from having much of their ‘character’ sanded off. Not a good sign for his future career, and LIAR hasn’t endured as much as I expected it to either.
#7 Nope, not Toronto. Canada doesn’t use the style of Pedestrian Crossing sign shown in the tunnel. Chicago’s a possibility (lots of tunnels, bilevel streets, and skyscrapers), but I’m not seeing any of the usual Chicago landmarks I’d expect. And again, the street sign style is wrong (“Grand” at 1:20), something only a roadgeek like me would notice…
Can’t really fault this one, although the song is too big for Ronan; he doesn’t quite fully inhabit it. Rick Nowels, Gregg Alexander’s co-writer, was largely responsible for many of Belinda Carlisle’s biggest and best hits.
Boyzone’s 2010 single Love Is a Hurricane is another Gregg Alexander effort, this time written with a New Radicals collaborator Danielle Brisebois (pretty good, too).
I just went back and looked at the original NYLPM review for this – done by Fred Solinger, not me – he points out that Gregg Alexander apparently said in his press release breaking up the New Radicals that he was a ‘Mutt Lange looking for his Shania’. So my comparison is more apt than I remembered!
Once you knew what you were listening for, spotting a Gregg Alexander co-write became pretty easy – the most blatant example is Texas’ “Inner Smile” – the “yeah! yeah! yeah!” backing vocal line that runs all the way through it is pretty much what a pre-programmed “Gregg” setting would be like.
@9, mapman. It’s downtown LA. The skyscrapers are just these, and there are some shots of the (endlessly used in movies) Second St Tunnel which is crossed by Grand Ave and is next to Grand Park. And here’s Grand Ave Lower level.
#13 You’re right! Never thought of LA for some reason…
“You Get What You Give” was a fabulous summary of what kind-of-indie-but-still-poppy guitar pop could do – “come around and kiss your ass in” indeed. A sure fire 9.
“Life Is A Rollercoaster”, though, is a lot duller (and frankly, next to “Breathless”, seems duller still). I suspect I am more prepared than most here to make excuses for young Ronan – I think as middle-of-the-road entertainers of no supreme innovative merit go he does what he does pretty damn well. So I would also disagree that this was the best song that he was ever involved with (granted: he did bugger up, on two occasions, in completely different ways, and to varying degrees, what I would rate as the best song he was ever involved with – “Father and Son”) – quite a few of his solo ballads are rather lovely, sensitive, engaging things, including (checks the chart stats) a bunny yet to come. I think Ronan generally works better at a slower pace – when he speeds things up (eg “Lovin’ Each Day”, or, worse, “I Love It When We Do”) there is a kind of slightly manic incoherence that, while brimming with enthusiasm, tends to a somewhat inchoate result.
That doesn’t really apply here: “Rollercoaster” is a coherent, complete, polished, song; but it’s also brimming with enthuisasm – – which, given the conceit of its title, and title line, perhaps it should be a little more…. To me this is competent mid-paced middle-of-the-roadness middle-everything: pop music by focus group, almost, down to the cheery smile. I find that it engages the emotions very little – perhaps less than it ought, given some of the lyrics. Everything is too tightly under control. In some contexts this gives a composition greater power and force, but here…again, it’s not an insubstantial song, exactly, it’s just….middle-of-the-road. Ronan’s performance is perfectly acceptable, but again there is nothing that makes me excited or rollercoaster-like. All in all a perfectly functional, rather too anodyne, but still tolerable 6.
This is the first one since Don’t Call Me Baby that I’ve recognised instantly; even with The Real Slim Shady I had to check out the video to remind myself if it was that one or that one. This, though, was properly memorable – just not necessarily in a good way. I didn’t exactly hate it at the time – I didn’t even dislike Ronan particularly – but I do now. I’ll give it 3.
I’d never really thought of effervescent optimism as being Gregg Alexander’s signature trait, but now that Tom’s pointed it out my mind turns to the best thing he was ever involved in: Sophie Ellis Bextor’s “Mixed Up World.” (SEB adds pluck and polish.) As New Radicals went, YGWYG is still as enjoyable as ever, but I’ve always preferred “Someday We’ll Know,” which I only discovered years after the fact had been cut up into a duet for Mandy Moore and Switchfoot Bloke to sing in A Walk to Remember.
A good companion-piece to ‘Breathless’ this one. Indeed, staple LIAR’s verses and middle 8 to B’s choruses and you’d probably really have something! Individually, however, each is more pleasant than exciting – solid, worthy #1s for established artists but not the sort of thing that would or could break anyone new. YGWYG (which was a #1 in NZ) still feels like Gregg Alexander’s great work. At the time it sounded like a missing Jimmy Webb sunshine-pop composition for 5th Dimension – really great, and an instant classic. LIAR feels on the verge of a YGWYG change at several points, and hence as though it’s settling for something less than soaring when it doesn’t go there. Interesting snare drum sound (combining a couple of sounds I think) on this record (it’s reminding me of something but I can’t think what). Anyhow, for me, this is another very professional:
5
Best ‘Rollercoaster’ songs?
1. Love Rollercoaster, Ohio Players/RHCP
2. Rollercoaster, EBTG
3. My Rollercoaster, Kimya Dawson
Any others (aside from LIAR)?
#17 Someday We’ll Know got pointed to me a few years ago and I really liked it for at least a fair while. Also turned out to be very useful in the process of understanding my voice a bit better. (That’s a neat irony, given that I’m about 90% sure one of the songs I did with my first singing teacher was Ronan’s first, awful, bunny!)
We’ll get a chance to discuss SEB in full – I’m really looking forward to the review of that bunny, especially if its review is as driven by the chart battle it won as the “Country House” one.
It doesn’t take me to point out that LIAR is somewhere between the quality of peak-era New Radicals and peak-ick Ronan, and I’m torn between a 6 and 7. Probably a 7 as I think it’s a bit better than “Breathless,” which I gave a 6. Given what Ronan did before, that’s a serious triumph for Glenn Alexander and to whomever hired him. It’s not thrilling, despite the title, but it’s superior radio pop-rock whatever else it is, and I suspect it still gets fairly regular airplay on local commercial radio. Probably deserves it, too.
#19 “The Rollercoaster Song” by the Lilac Time is decent enough….
It’s less than a Popular year since we had another Celtic Tiger bubblegum act scoring an (8) here with their own Rollercoaster. There’s no need to be resorting to the blooming Lilac Time!
@22, Izzy. Whoops, Rollercoaster, B*Witched right you are. In my defence, I only gave the track a ‘4’ so never committed it to memory.
Gaspar Noe’s Enter The Void (2009) has the best, most ingenious and shocking rollercoaster scene I’ve come across in movies. May cause heart attacks; highly er recommended.
@19 13th Floor Elevators, natch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsKny8WnktI
The Spacemen 3 cover is pretty far out, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gfyvKdE6oU
I always think of LIAR as being sung to the tune of the chorus of this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP2yxRgnR8Q
#25 – aargh! Set an ear-lamprey to catch the earworm, would you?
I always think of mishearing lyrics as something I did when I was six or seven (around the time I asked my parents why that Christian pop group was called the G-Strings), but I distinctly remember wondering why a minestrone would be served with bombers and cheese, and what the bombers were anyway. And I was a mature and sensible 15 (although I’d never been to an Italian restaurant).
“Rollercoaster” is one of the more memorable tracks on Sleeper’s third album (I initially typed “Sleepr” as if they were some Web 2.0 dealio).
Wasn’t the legendary* My Bloody Valentine/Jesus And Mary Chain/Dinosaur Jr/Blur early 90s tour named Rollercoaster, after a JAMC song I’ve completely forgotten now?
*among a vanishingly small demographic that happens to include me
Yes it was! How did Blur manage to get on there?
ooh i saw the rollercoaster tour at brixton academy — think me and my friend left before blur came on haha (or arrived after they finished)
Blur = baggy quota, to start with. They released Popscene halfway through the tour – wonder if they took it out to stretch its legs.
Re 29/31: I think it was Blur’s first Coxon-led attempt to reposition themselves as credible and indie (ie scratchy and noisy). A brief moment between baggy and britpop. Popscene flopped and they had a rethink.
I blame that Brixton Academy show for my lousy hearing.
The Grid, of ‘Swamp Thing’ fame, had a no.19 hit in 1994 called ‘Rollercoaster’.
Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” has a rollercoaster in it.
I was hoping to learn a bit more about Gregg Alexander here, because as I mentioned at no.2 the New Radicals seemed to break and burst in a shower of acclaim, with him treated as a significant and influential figure, yet I never really understood why.
This thread’s left me not-much-the-wiser – I’d assumed there had been some kind of under-the-radar backstory that I’d missed, and You Get What You Give was a kind of late-career crossover reward hit, but I wiki’ed him just now and his entry is surprisingly thin.
What’s the deal? Was he even known beforehand?
What I mean is that in my memory You Get What You Give was received as if, say, Steven Malkmus had shaped up and produced a no.1 hit. Which seemed plausible enough, lord knows there were so many american indie underachievers through the 80s and 90s; no reason why there shouldn’t also be tons I hadn’t previously heard of.
Whereas the reality seems be more as if, say, Bran Van 3000 had been more articulate.
It could be my memory is wrong, of course. But even his output since wouldn’t seem to qualify him as a major figure.
Re35/36: No, I think you’re right – the New Radicals were a one-hit wonder that (initially) didn’t seem like a one-hit wonder, although that eventually turned out to be (intentionally or not) their purpose. Kind of a bit like someone who directs a well-received indie film with the hidden motivation of the getting steady gigs directing TV episodes, maybe.
But, yes, they/he were treated like a big arrival. The name probably helped – it’s tacky, but it didn’t sound as instantly disposable as Babylon Zoo or (indeed) Bran Van 3000. So it was all a cunning sleight of hand, but I think you were far from the only person misdirected.
I’d be a LIAR (well, someone had to do it) if I said I didn’t like the song, but Ronan’s never been my cup of tea, so…(5).
YGWYG would have been a solid 8.
@28, @30, etc: So what was the running order? JAMC topping the bill? Dinosaur Jr opening? Or am I imposing anachronistic contemporary standards?
I guess the listing today would be – top to bottom – Blur, MBV, JAMC, Dinosaur.
Re28: ‘Among a vanishingly small demographic’ – see, this is the kind of thing I just can’t tell any more about. What’s vanishing, what’s stubbornly persistent and what’s bigger than it was at the time. In this case, assorted folk who went to the Psychocandy 29th anniversary shows* insisted that there were a fair number of young people there. But that remains in the unproven file.
*I refused to go because they had a drummer with a full drum kit. THE ROCKIST SWINE (which actually raises the question: are the drums on Psychocandy actually all really Bobby G playing stand-up drums? Or was there an unnamed session drummer? Anyone know?). Although, to be honest, also I didn’t go because when I did see the Mary Chain play, in ’87 and either ’89 or ’90, they were really dull).
Re: The Rollercoaster tour. From memory it was conceived as the UK equivalent of the Lollapalooza festival and was Jim Reid’s idea. From various interviews I’ve read down the years I think most of the bands got as trashed as possible and competed with each other to see who could be the loudest.
39: from memory the J&MC closed every show, while the others rotated below them. They were at similar levels of popularity anyway, so any running order would’ve worked.
40: I like to think they got Murray Dalglish back to keep things solid, while Bobby (unmiked) tapped a triangle or a cowbell.
The official Blur story is that the failure of Popscene made them think a new direction was needed & being miserable in America (with concomitant boozing) made them want to go as British as possible, with the results we all know. At least, that’s the Albarn story – I suspect Graham Coxon was having a whale of a time out there, grunge, booze and all.
Ah, Bobby G. Cashing in another of this month’s Digression Tokens, there was a time in the late 90s when Bobby & sympathetic journalists were quietly forgetting about the JAMC period, all the better to shave a few years off the great man’s age. Guardian Weekend ran an interview with him in 1997; I remember because a friend and I sent in a rebuttal of a few points (which they printed!). Our conclusion was
“Bobby Gillespie 30? We think not.”
I have some session sheets from the Psychocandy sessions that have Bobby and John down on the tracks. Probably John Loder.
Re:43 – Hence why Popscene wasn’t put on Modern Life is Rubbish, it was apparently a reaction to the fact it didn’t sell or chart as well as they believed it should have done. Even when the ‘Singles – Best Of’ came out in the early 2000’s, it was omitted from the CD. Though I believe it is on the American version of Modern Life. Retrospectively it was seen as Blur’s turning point, though the view was that making it hard to get hold of was some sort of punishment for the fans.
Some of that maybe revisionist history, they weren’t exactly in a position to be stubborn at that point in time. Dave Balfe, on first hearing Modern Life, commented that there weren’t any singles on it, at which point Damon went away and wrote For Tomorrow and Chemical World.
Re #45 – IIRC the LP presented to Balfe was significantly different to what eventually came out – I think only Oily Water and Miss America survived the cut – and some of the new songs contained veiled references to him (Pressure On Julian being the obvious one)
#44 – John Moore according to Wikipedia (“when Bobby Gillespie was unavailable” – never heard it called that before…).
The low point is the “all night long!” ad lib. Ronan makes a doomed attempt to inject some joyful spontaneity (least convincing since McCartney) and only succeeds in rendering the previous line nonsensical.
Re44/47: Neither of those Johns, as far as I can tell, was a proper drummer. And they also used a drum machine in the period afterwards, so there may be one on Psychocandy (It’s So Hard, for instance?). All of which backs the insistence I would have made when I was 16 that they weren’t actually a rock band AT THAT POINT. (A very contestable claim, obviously).
Popscene is rubbish and its failure was understandable and deserved. Is my charitable Blur opinion of the day.