Goodnight Nurse - My Only(Single)

Sat 7th Oct, 2006 in Music Reviews

Songs by three piece pop punk outfits generally consist of the following characteristics: Simple power chord progressions on guitar; lyrics about girls in which each line usually ends with meaningless and redundant rhyming;verse – chorus -verse – chorus song structuring.

The first single from Goodnight Nurse’s album Always and Never features two tracks – My Only and their accompanying b-side I Would. The single also features the video clip for My Only.

First song – My Only.
Straight away the song throws the first characteristic out the window. The song grabs the listener’s attention by blasting out with a psychedelic guitar riff and steadily escalating into an incredibly enticing rock appetiser. As the song returns to a calm state and the singing begins, it appears that the verse might be disparate from the second characteristic too. This is, of course, until the end of the verse when the superfluous and insincere lyrics come in to play. “There is no way to justify it so. Now I breathe in and let it go.”

The song then crashes into a heavy, passionate and amazingly catchy chorus. While confirming the presence of the third characteristic, the chorus knocks out the other two and becomes the highlight of the song (and single).

After ripping through the intro riff again the song returns to the verse. Here it becomes evident that Goodnight Nurse are, after all, capable of writing deep, poetic and thoughtful lyrics. The line “This pain is mine to keep and call my own. I’ll carry it until I’m gone.” produces lyrics worthy of an emotional teenager’s MSN name (no pun intended).

After the second chorus the song slows in pace, yet builds in intensity and falls into an interlude which the listener welcomes with open arms. The work of guitarist Joel Little in this 30 seconds of bliss is worthy of commendation and confirms the rejection of the first characteristic beyond doubt.

It soon becomes apparent, however, that Goodnight Nurse are their own worst enemies by ending the appealing interlude with superfluous, puerile and empty lyrics. “I can’t forgive myself that I let go. My life is worth no more than yours I know.” These lyrics struggle to make sense let alone contribute to the meaning of the song.

Two out of the three characteristics met.

The second and last song on the single is I Would.

This song conforms to all of the aforementioned characteristics. While providing a slower and softer serving for the listener, it also doesn’t offer anything special. The song sounds like just another pop punk song made up of mediocrity. The guitar work is what you would usually come to expect from a three piece with bland, ascending chords being repeated in a nauseating way.

Three out of three characteristics met.

All in all, the latest Goodnight Nurse single sails somewhere between a tsunami of exhilarating, mind-blowing rock and roll and an insignificant ripple in the water surface. In my opinion, the single does not really provide the listener with a true and accurate taste of Goodnight Nurse, who actually stray from the kind of conformity to which I have referred in the aforementioned review.

The fact that the My Only single met most of the characteristics of conformist pop punk bands is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a formula which has worked extremely well for their pop punk predecessors. Done to death, maybe, but effective nonetheless. If it’s not broken, why fix it? I’ll tell you why. It is because the sound can often convey a nauseating sense of déjà vu to the listener which can result in your band failing to produce an individual sound or identity.

The single, as a whole, is not outstanding, but it’s not cringe worthy either. My advice is to get the album instead, it’s definitely worth it.