𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 - this week: Fail Big - Brenda Cay

Welcome all to 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿, a series of weekly reviews by Charles Connolly - an artist in his own right. Here, Charles delves into the greatest brand new singles brought to you by the best unsigned artists on our electrifying and eclectic set of 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙁𝙖𝙞𝙡 𝘽𝙞𝙜 - 𝘽𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙖 𝘾𝙖𝙮

Charles tries, tries again…

Big bucks. Big corporations. Fat cats. Think Amazon. Think Apple. Think Shell. Think Facebook. Think Elon Musk. Think Jeff Bezos. Think Mark Zuckerberg. Think Trump (simmer down). Think... Taylor Swift... "Wait, what does SHE have to do with these pigs??" - I didn't say they were pigs; YOU said they were pigs. "Okay, but what is SHE doing there??" - This intrigues me. Barring the last name mentioned, these are the things and people we are all supposed to hate. Hate with a passion. This whole corporate attitude STINKS!! How DARE they be rich and successful! Okay, okay. Ethically, you’ve got a point. Politically, you’ve got a point. But what it tends to boil down to is entrepreneur minds turning into business people, turning into wealth. Big wealth. I find it interesting that we apparently all love Steve Jobs, yet all detest Tim Cook. Apparently the reason behind this is that “Steve Jobs was some sort of spiritual guru, and Tim Cook is just a money man” (not actually a quote). Wait a sec, you think Jobs was simply passionate about making our lives better…? He was an entrepreneur with unbelievable business skills! He wanted to make a tonne of money! Same as Cook. And both have done rather well.

Are you really so terribly against these people? It would surely be easy enough to stop lining their pockets by boycotting the lot, no? I can already hear the blood boiling in people’s veins as this article makes them angry angry ANGRY!!! And so, Mr. Complainer reaches for his phone to post a spitting comment of rage to his social media platform of choice, but quickly because he has to pick up the kids from school. The problem lies in the fact that he has posted his comment on Instagram, Facebook (Mr. Zuckerberg) and TwiX (Mr. Musk), using an iPhone (Mr. Cook) that he bought on Amazon (Mr. Bezos), and then (after a quick swig of Coca-Cola) he turns the ignition key of his gas-guzzling SUV (Mr. Shell). It turns out boycotting is harder than you thought. This just in: despite petrol being so expensive these days, charging an electric car is due to be more expensive than petrol. Hardly an incentive to make that switch… “But we’re saving the planet!!” - nope. No you’re not. And you suddenly don’t care about that when your bank account is being eaten into at an alarming rate by your shiny new lithium battery on wheels… And so, petrol sticks around for a bit longer. Let’s get back to Mr. Complainer. You see, he actually likes what they have given him. Ahem. SOLD him. This angry reaction to me, is as crazy as a client asking me to produce their track, me charging a fee, them being happy with the result, and then them getting angry that I actually make a living from this!! How dare I do a good job. How dare I charge for something the client wants! Thankfully, this altercation has never happened. Because of COURSE it hasn’t. That would be stupid. But now imagine that I were suddenly the most successful producer/engineer in the world and was therefore making a stupid amount of money… The hate would start. Absurd to me. Despite the hate, I would still like this to come true. Which brings me on to my next point.

When people say “How dare they be rich and successful”, they are not really completing their stance. What they tend to mean is, “How DARE they be rich and successful, when I am NOT!!” - Ah. We have hit the crux of the matter. The cold, hard truth of it all. Jealousy. While there are many reasons to be put off by some of these giants in business, jealousy should not be one of them. Otherwise it's pure hypocrisy. We'd all like to be rich. Some of you even MAY be. Money buys everything. Even love. Well, no. Not love. Maybe plastic love... But it definitely buys everything else. Sad but true. Oh, actually, I'll tell you what it doesn't buy. Accomplishment. A sense of achievement. Unless of course the achievement is in the making of these pennies. In which case you're quids in.

“But what about Taylor?? You haven’t explained about Taylor!!” - Ach. I was hoping you would have forgotten that bit by now. Taylor Swift is a marketing ploy. Sorry to the fans, but I believe this to be true. An extra special apology for NAS artist Paul McCormick - I know you’re a huge fan. She - coupled with her team - is the same as the big boys at the top. The despisees. She is simply packaged differently so as not to rile the general public. Many young fans look up to her and see her as a role model (others perhaps simply see her as a model). Music is far more appealing and accessible than business. But sadly, in this league, music is business. Swift is a brand. A dangerously huge brand. I don’t think any artist should get THIS big, as it can have horrendous knock-on effects. Political endorsement in music is something I personally cannot stand. These mega musicians and artists NEED to keep their political views to themselves, or at least not megaphone them into our eardrums from all angles. It’s a form of brainwashing. If you were to vote the opposite of your idol, you might see it as betrayal as a fan. So you do what you’re told. This is NOT a good thing. Let’s keep music pure, no? We have little left to enjoy. By all means, write a song called “Orange Man, Bad”, but keep it to the confines of the song. Please don’t just go on social media and say “Vote for this person, not that person”. I don't want music to go the way of Hollywood. Some might argue that this wish is a ship long sailed, but I like to think positively. I like to hope in between sighs. And politicians need to learn the same lesson: stop playing our favourite songs on your “love me” demonstrations. You’re really spoiling our fun. Something at which politicians are incredibly adept.

Enough spoiling your fun; let’s get in to music. I said last week there was one other song (of several) I particularly went for, but that I wouldn’t say what it was on the off chance that I review it the following week… Welcome to the following week. This song has been stuck in my head every day since then, so I really couldn’t ignore it. It is time for Nashville’s own Brenda Cay to step into the CC spotlight for the very first time, with her latest single: Fail Big. Although Brenda has been a member of the New Artist Spotlight for many years, I have never reviewed her. This is not because she is no good. Far from it. It is because although I can appreciate and talk about music that isn't necessarily to my personal taste, sometimes it can be tricky. In the case of this artist, the difficulty has always been a thing of genre. I do try to be unbiased and showcase as much as I can in terms of musical scope, but there does have to be something for me to latch on to... Growing up in the 70s will have given you a splash of Country lovin'. Growing up currently might be giving you youngsters a similar vibe. But when I was growing up, Country was as dead as disco (at least in Britain). It was as unpopular as jazz. That is, until disco and jazz came back. It amazes me how we rehash the same old things every couple of decades. As soon as it hits the base of the trough, it starts climbing again. Like a soundwave, wiggling up and down ad infinitum. Quite strange. Anyway. Country music. Simply put: it ain't me, babe. Now, I know that to many of you in the Ewe Ess of Aye (especially certain states), this could be tantamount to blasphemy. But it has rarely floated my boat. In fact, as soon as that twang comes along, I'm usually bailing out the boat, bucket by bucket so as not to drown! So THIS is the simple, perhaps shameful reason I have never reviewed Brenda Cay. She makes purely country music, and I don't go for Country music.

Two bits of good news though. One, those who go for Country music absolutely LOVE her stuff. Two, for those who feel as I feel, this new single is different. Sure, it is absolutely still Country, but there is a LOT more pop in this one. A modern pop too. And as Taylor Swift and many others have realised, Country pop hits BIG. Before I go into the song, I'd just like to give you an idea of Brenda's success so far... She has had 14 licensing deals and more than 7 million streams. Her music has been featured on the Country category of Apple Hot Tracks, as well as the Academy of Country Music’s New Music Friday playlist. She has been featured in numerous Country music publications. Her song, I Fish, received an Honourable Mention at the American Songwriter awards, and she even won first place for her song, Remind Me of Me. She is a member of the CMA (Country Music Association). She has 45,000 avid followers on social media, and currently has more than 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify alone. So you see, Country is very much here to stay, and so is Brenda.

Fail Big first caught my eye because of the title. It's weird. But good weird. Its meaning though, is far more interesting. As always, the song's meaning is open to interpretation, but I have a plausible theory. There are certain brilliant, daring minds throughout the decades and even centuries that have come up with crazy concepts for "how to make a buck", where others have very possibly told them it would fail. Yet in their own mind, they can see a clear vision. They can see a gap in the market. And most importantly, it ends up working. This used to be what "entrepreneur" meant. Now "entrepreneur" is what you put in your TwiX bio, along with "promoter", "expert", and "God". This might be semi-believable if they didn't have 14 followers... So yes, these REAL entrepreneurs have initiative, invention, daring, assertiveness and an "all-in" attitude. If it goes wrong, it will cripple them. So that's why the best make sure it doesn't go wrong. This is why the best are the best. Brenda evidently realises this (if I haven't read the song entirely wrong), and is therefore truly inspired to be just like them. A go-getter! Well so far, she is going and she is getting. I have a feeling this song is only going to propel her into the near impossibility of making it in the music industry.

I am absolutely CERTAIN that if this song had been released by Taylor Swift or Shania Twain, this would be a classic song forever. One that half the world loves while the other half keeps bailing out the buckets, but where everyone KNOWS it. The mentions of famous brands and names also help with that. An instant connection with listeners when Disney, KFC and Bohemian Rhapsody are mentioned. But the hook is in the chorus. Such a fantastic and unexpected chord when the word Fail hits. One of the best and most catchy pop choruses I have heard in a long while. As to the sound and the production, it's all just flawless. Brenda's voice curls to perfection with impeccable enunciation. As ever! Her songs have always had excellent sound, but this one I think really takes things a notch higher. It sounds like Nashville’s top session musicians and a leading sound engineer. The main guitar riff sounds epic, and again just sounds classic. Fail Big is to Country Pop what Joe Bonamassa is to modern Blues. The best.

Frankly - and I never thought I’d say this in one of my reviews - she could not fail bigger. EPIC FAIL!!

Aside from daring, guts and foresight, being an entrepreneur means 3 things: money, professionalism, status. In other words, Quid pro quo.

Listen to 𝙁𝙖𝙞𝙡 𝘽𝙞𝙜 on the 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗹𝘆’𝘀 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿 Spotify playlist HERE!

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