A review of Basement Jaxx's "U Don't Know Me"

"U Don't Know Me" is a song by Basement Jaxx, a distinctive London-based dance duo. This song features on Basement Jaxx's 2005 compilation album titled 'The Singles'. Famed mostly for being able to transcend between both mainstream and underground dance genres, the duo's fusion of both traditional dance beats and electronica makes "U Don't Know Me" a typical Basement Jaxx track bearing all of the duo's hallmark of dance-laden generic elements.

"U Don't Know Me" lyrical narrative, vocal and generic style.

Vocal style Vocalist Lisa Kekaula features on this track. It is not unusual for Basement Jaxx to incorporate a vocal element in their music. This element has always set the dynamic dance duo apart from the rest of music artists who populate the dance scene as it is more traditional to have no vocal elements. Lisa Kekaula's vocals add a well-rounded and almost edgy contrast to the song. Without her vocal input, "U Don't Know Me" wouldn't possibly have it's melodic aspects. This is due to the song's multiple and almost fractured dynamics which range between bass-laden techno and house beats. Lyrical narrative and generic style Lyrically, "U Don't Know Me" is a gutsy and independent song. Kekaula's confident vocal delivery truly demonstrates this particular aspect. Generically, this song is true to Basement Jaxx's overall musical style. They have gained notorious mass appeal by mixing multiple dance music elements without ever compromising the quality of their music. "U Don't Know Me" is almost an experimentation of different aspects of dance music layered and varied. Multiple musical elements that are used on this track are particularly unique and truly demonstrate Basement Jaxx's trademark style of music.

Positive points

"U Don't Know Me" is one of Basement Jaxx's more complicated songs. There are many different styles of dance music that are incorporated into this song which is an indicator of how well Basement Jaxx are able to assemble and deliver a vast array of creative skills.

Negative points

The repetition of the words "You don't know me" tends to limit the song's diversity and disengages the listener to a certain extent because of this aspect. Despite of the song's dance genre roots, Basement Jaxx have almost overlooked the song's capability of appealing to underground dance audiences by not using the more familiar traits of dance music, ultimately making "U Don't Know Me" more of a post‒modern dance song. Also, the song's title is very similar to Armand Van Helden's "You Dont Know Me" which highlights a lack of creativity in regards to the song's title.