14 October 2016
Getting done for copyright infringement by The Script feels ignominious, like losing a table quiz to a team of farmyard animals. Anyway, the law has spoken, and James Arthur’s ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’ is now obliged to show in the ingredients that it contains traces of creepy pushy-guy dad-rock anthem ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’. Interestingly, The Script’s lawyer in that legal case again Team Arthur was the same lawyer who represented the estate of Marvin Gaye in serving cosmic retribution on Robin Thicke for ‘Blurred Lines’, which suggests that the first-cab-off-the-rank rule also applies in the world of music litigation.
Much as I enjoy these regular courtroom kerfuffles at the top of our charts, the case of ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’ really could have been settled on the courthouse steps, or bare-knuckle outside a chip shop. Arthur is a likeable enough sort in the Lewis Capaldi or Niall Horan mode, but I can’t say he brings anything redeemable to that verse melody he shares with ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’. Still, he works wonders enough in the fact that even with its lyrics about domestic commitment and happily having kids, the song keeps its folk-pop shape and—just about—avoids descending into the schmaltzy first-dance bait of the worst of Ed Sheeran-ism. Sometimes you have to take consolation where you can.
