Friday 5 June 2009

Matthew Wilder 'Break My Stride'

Chart Peak: 4

YouTube

A commenter on this rival blog post claims that this may be the catchiest song ever. And yet funnily enough, I have no recollection of hearing it at all until about five years ago. So either I didn't hear it that often or it's not so catchy after all.

'Break My Stride' is another dose of femme-fatale pop, although the mood is bouncy enough that you might not notice at first that it's a girl who's telling Wilder that there ain't nothing gonna break-a her stride. The sound is fairly run-of-the-mill synthpop but with dubious reggae-ish inflections: check out the extended version with extra fake steel drums, and the rather odd Jamaican/Northumberland accent on lyrics like "The road behind was rocky/But now you're feeling cocky". He really does sound a bit like Ruth Archer in places.

Ultimately, this tips over the line marked "irritating" for me. It's worth seeing the video clip I've linked to above to count the early 80s cliches (he's wearing a tabard!) but I'm hardly surprised that he never made it to the Top 75 again, although he did have some success as a producer.

Available on: British Hit Singles: Ultimate One Hit Wonders

1 comment:

  1. You would not believe how well this song goes down in a nightclub.

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