Song Review: "A Famous Life"

“A Famous Life” by Faris Nourallah from I Love Faris, (Western Vinyl.2003)
File Under: Indie.Baroque.Pop

Songs that are under two minutes have always fascinated me. In those over-before-you-know-it 120 seconds, there is no room for error … because if you fuck up … it’s not pretty. "A Famous Life" is one-minute forty-five seconds of gentle Love-influenced pop centered on pretty harpischord while organ and drums dutifully hold their proper place (it should be noted guitar and bass are absent). Faris' melody charges hard in a languid kind of way. The chorus is one of those goes up and then down (ha!). The interaction of the music with the lyrics - he contemplates what it would be like to switch places with an ubiquitous famous face (best line: "Everywhere I look I see your face, please be mine/A hair is never even out of place, please be mine.") - is so odd and clever. Faris Nourallah did not fuck up. Here. On this track.

###