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Gabriella Cilmi

Sweet About Me

Xenomania's swinging, retro-sounding pop with subtle electro touches, and a sixteen-year-old Gabriella Cilmi singing it in a voice a critic called sweet and coarse at once: her breakthrough, a number one in Australia.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Gabriella Cilmi was sixteen when Sweet About Me made her name: pop that borrows its walk from swing jazz and its warmth from soul. Playful, catchy and a little sultry, it arrived in 2008 amid the soul singers who followed Amy Winehouse, and held its own because, the BBC’s chart blog said, it swings a bit.

Song Summary

Cilmi wrote it with Xenomania, Brian Higgins’s team behind Girls Aloud and Sugababes, after raiding a Parisian record shop for inspiration; its fun came from her mother’s love of Sweet and T. Rex. Wikipedia describes pop and swing jazz over a subtle electro beat derived from rocksteady grooves, with layered pop production. Cilmi said the lyric means we will all make mistakes, so we might as well have fun making them; Nick Levine of Digital Spy heard something more bitter under the melodic cuteness.

Musical Breakdown

The sources describe the song’s sound more than its sections, so this walk-through keeps to the parts they name.

Intro

Paul Cashmere of Undercover FM wrote of the song’s sultry opening notes, sung in a voice Levine heard as sweet and coarse at once, like honey drizzled on toast.

Verse 1

Here the song’s two versions part. On the album version, this page’s recording, the opening line comes back and a further line follows before the pre-chorus; the radio edit cuts the verse in half.

Chorus

Jake Taylor of Sputnikmusic praised the song for not leaning on its chorus to hold your attention, trading it for brilliant singing and layered production throughout.

Concepts in Focus

swing plays pairs of notes unevenly, so a rhythm lilts instead of marching. Here it lives inside a modern pop record, which Wikipedia puts in common time at 132 beats per minute, and the BBC’s Fraser McAlpine credited the swing with lifting it above the other soul revivalists of 2008. Compare Paloma Faith – Upside Down.

A hook is what stays with you; Cilmi thought the song was like a nursery rhyme, the way it got stuck in your head.

A radio edit is a shorter version for airplay. The CD singles opened with one, dropping two lines before the pre-chorus that the album keeps.

Artistic Context

Cilmi began recording Lessons to Be Learned in Melbourne at thirteen and moved to London in 2007 to finish it. She loved Led Zeppelin and Kings of Leon, yet said she had to make a pop-sounding record to reach as many people as possible; she and Higgins met in the middle. Island released the album on 31 March 2008, its title taken from a line of this song.

Impact and Reception

The song topped the Australian chart for five non-consecutive weeks, making Cilmi the youngest Australian artist to reach number one, and rose to number six in the UK, where PRS for Music counted it the most-played track of 2009. It won Single of the Year at the 2008 ARIA Awards, and Time Out named it the best song of 2008. McAlpine admitted it does not stop you in your tracks the way Amy Winehouse – Rehab did; put it on and let it swing instead.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Hear how swing, a jazz rhythm, can sit inside a modern pop production with an electro beat.
  • Explain what makes a hook stick, using a song its singer compared to a nursery rhyme.
  • Describe what a radio edit cuts from an album version, using the two versions of this song.

Listening guide

  1. the opening notes What Paul Cashmere of Undercover FM called the song's sultry opening notes: the voice that announced a new singer.
  2. the first verse On the album version the opening line comes back and a further line follows before the pre-chorus; the radio edit cuts the verse in half.
  3. the groove A subtle electro beat drawn from rocksteady grooves under layered pop production; the BBC's reviewer noticed above all that it swings.
  4. the vocal A voice Digital Spy heard as sweet and coarse at the same time, much like honey drizzled on toast.
  5. the arrangement The credits list vibes and xylophone, Mark Feltham's harmonica and Nick Squires's cello alongside keyboards, guitars, bass and drums; listen for which you can pick out.

Concepts in this track

radio edit

40 tracks

A shortened version of a track for radio and streaming: a quicker start, fewer repeats, usually three to four minutes.

hook

99 tracks

The short, memorable idea a song is built to stick with you: a sung phrase, a riff, a synth line. A hook is designed for repetition and usually arrives early.

swing

14 tracks

Playing pairs of equal notes unevenly, the first longer than the second. Drum machines and sequencers have a swing setting because a little lilt makes a programmed pattern feel played.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. Cilmi said the song is about having fun while making mistakes, while Digital Spy found its lyrics surprisingly bitter. Which do you hear, and can it be both?
  2. Sputnikmusic praised the song for not relying on its chorus as the point your attention returns to. What holds your attention instead?
  3. Cilmi loved Led Zeppelin and Kings of Leon but said she had to make a pop-sounding record. What does a singer gain and lose by meeting a pop team in the middle?

References

  1. Wikipedia. Sweet About Me. Encyclopedia
  2. Digital Spy. Gabriella Cilmi: 'Sweet About Me' (2008). Review
  3. BBC Radio 1 Chart Blog. Gabriella Cilmi - 'Sweet About Me' (2008). Review
  4. Wikipedia. Lessons to Be Learned. Encyclopedia
  5. MusicBrainz. Sweet About Me (recording). Database

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