The best pop music has the ability to walk fine lines between different worlds and is able to appeal to wide demographics without sacrificing its own integrity. We often see the opposite of this idea at work, at one extreme you find throwaway pop music aimed at the teen dollar to be used and discarded when the wheel of fashion turns, at the other music aimed at a mature audience often playing things safe, music consumers who have long ago decided what they like. Rarely do we find songs which appeal to both ends of the spectrum, songs which are sassy and fresh enough for the younger set but also refined and slick enough to become firm favourites through constant repeat. Just occasionally, music clever enough to fit into both camps simultaneously pops up on the radar and I Know That You Do is just such a song.
Pop it may be, in the sense that almost anything with a commercial edge can be defined as pop, but it is a track that mixes the infectiousness associated with that genre with some slick R&B grooves and unexpectedly soulful undercurrents. And it is the depth that these genres add to the song, the sweeping of string sections, hip-hop beats, the funky guitar lines and the rising and falling of the songs dynamic from subtle interludes to soaring crescendoes, that provide its mass appeal status. And it does have mass appeal, the pop picker the discerning dance fan, young, old, make, female…I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t love this.
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