17 April 2015
Paul Walker’s death in a car crash in November 2013 was the motivator for this rap-pop ballad from the movie he was making at the time, the seventh instalment of the Fast & Furious series. From its use on the film’s elegiac coda, the sentiment behind it was clearly heartfelt, plus I imagine others dealing with loss finding it serves a similarly cathartic purpose. So, I don’t particularly feel like snarking or scrutinising ‘See You Again’.
I knew Wiz Khalifa from his fine Pittsburgh anthem ‘Black And Yellow’, which reached no. 14 in Ireland in 2011, and my policy of instantly switching off or ducking any Maroon 5 track in my hearing meant I didn’t realise he was the featured artist on ‘Payphone’, kept off the Irish number one spot by Flo Rida’s ‘Whistle’ in 2012. As for the featured artist on ‘See You Again’, Charlie Puth was new to everyone, and we’ll get to see his actual debut single here later in 2015. I suspect I won’t be withholding the snark and scrutiny on that one.
