To paraphrase some chirpy, ginger-haired scallywag, it seems a hard knock life growing up in Staines, Middlesex. Hard-Fi frontman Richard Archer first told us "Where I come from/I just don't conform" on Tied Up Too Tight, then we learned that "Work is such a bind" on Living For The Weekend, and finally, to cap off his misery, on Cash Machine, Archer finds his credit is in the red, forcing him to leave town when he learns his girlfriend is pregnant. And then there's Better Do Better...
This is slower than Hard-Fi's previous singles and lacks the immediacy of Hard To Beat and Cash Machine. A vengeful kiss-off to a two-timing girlfriend, this, for me, is the weakest cut of the album, an over-dramatic epic that doesn't particularly seem to go anywhere. Richard Archer's lyrics seem more forced than before, particularly when it comes to the chorus: "You think I'm gonna take you back/You'd better do better than that/I'll tell you how it's gonna be/Don't you never ever come near me". It's overly dramatic, delivered with a bombast that would make Bono blush, and has 'anthem' aspirations written all over it. The lyrics seem too laboured to be emotive, such as when Archer sings "Your face makes me want to be sick".
Hard-Fi are a band with a lot of promise; they should stick to the tight, energetic stylings of Cash Machine and Hard To Beat and leave the overwrought, middle-of-the-road 'feel my emotion' hogwash to U2.
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