When you say you love me...

[cherish]

I agree with Janie in that he writes better when drawing from his own experience. I think that's the case with Darren - OK brilliant songs can and do exist when they come purely from the imagination, but I personally think Darren's strength is taking emotions that he's actually felt and putting them into words. He's good at translating love, or lust, or pain, into words and lyrics...I feel he understands how to do it better if he's been through it.

There's this old thing, not sure where I got it from now *lol* but it goes something like, "To write well you have to write what you know." I think this definitely applies in this case. Of course there are always exceptions, and true works of art can be born out of nothing but imagination. But I do think Darren is better at expressing something real through words. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I like Darren's version of When You Say You Love Me. It isn't my *favourite* song ever but I liked the lyrics and the melody was OK. Again the music was a bit bland but it was a demo. I haven't heard Clay Aiken's version yet and to be honest I don't think I want to because I'm biased against him [img]tongue.gif[/img] I should really try and be fair and maybe listen to it. But I have Darren singing it in my head. Then again, I suppose it's not so bad. With what we were saying about him writing/not writing from personal experience, I don't think he would give away a song just like *that* if it WAS drawn from personal experience. Like he wrote Dirty for Britney...and I Can't Ever Get Enough Of You was meant for *NSync. I think Darren appreciates his personal work too much to simply give it away to another artist...I feel the same way about songs I wrote. To have someone else sing your feelings is a difficult thing...it doesn't really feel right. I can't really imagine this song was so personal to Darren, otherwise he would have kept it. I could be wrong though.

xxSam

<font color="#9966FF" size="1">[ October 12, 2003 11:00 AM: Message edited by: cherish ]</font>

[woodstock_shultz]

Hey Guys!

Kat, that was awesome of you to put those up where we could hear them!

I heard the Clay version today at HMV, and have heard the Darren version first today...

I think both versions are well done, Clay is definetly a good singer; but Darren's voice somehow conveys more emotion, I think it's b/c he's got much more of an emotional connection to the song....

I like Clay's version, but D's is better [img]smile.gif[/img]

[BarbT]

Thanks so much Kat [img]smile.gif[/img]