Music Review // Katharine Fountain "When Good Girls Go Bad"

"When Good Girls Go Bad" begins it is slow and slithering through like a snake.  It's sultry and carries that sort of James Bond-like R&B quality where someone is singing to someone else about their characteristics.   It's big and full of drama, musically, but by the chorus it also kicks in with pop beats which just make this song feel similar to other genres you might have heard before without actually sounding like them.  The execution in this musically is what sets it apart from anything I've heard before outside of maybe Vicki Lovelee.

During the verses of this song the idea is first presented that someone who is younger never really thinks about being the bad girl when they grow up, but then as they get older things change.   One of the lines in here which really makes you feel like this is about a good girl gone bad but in a way which they didn't want is: "Now she's crossed the line".  That just makes me feel like she's gone too far, even for herself, and she's trying to find that way back to being good again.

The idea of being a bad girl and wanting to once again be a good girl also comes out in the chorus, which says: "Is this a round trip ticket or is there no turning back / I'd like to know where good girls go / When good girls go bad".   This stresses that concept of someone being in a place and you trying to get them (or yourself) back from that place- out of the land of bad and into the land of good.  

Katharine Fountain seems to use this song as both a lesson and as a warning.  A lyric in here says "Demons are always nearer" and I think that's a good reminder that seemingly anyone at any time can take that trip from being good into being bad.  While I don't think it's excusing those actions, it is relating with them to the point that it's less concerned with someone becoming bad and more focused on trying to get them back to the good side.  Whether this could be about you or someone you know, this song has a huge sound that I think people need to hear.