It Doesn't Matter At All - 10cc - Improved 2nd Official Video

‘It Doesn’t Matter At All’ is one of the album highlights. A late choice as a second single, it died a death which is a great shame because while perhaps not as inventive or original as some of the band’s best biggest hits it features one of their loveliest melodies. A sort of ‘I’m Not In Love’ from the other perspective, this is someone deep in love trying to get his loved one to admit that she is too and that it’s the rest of the world who should be ignorant of their love. People call the narrator ‘crazy’ and ‘a fool’ for being in love, but that ‘doesn’t matter at all’ if she loves him too. The hint is that the narrator is being mocked for being overly-emotional and OTT in admitting his feelings (in contrast to the in-denial narrator of ‘Love’ who makes up excuses for his signs of affection) and – in the third verse – that this might be a one-way uncomfortable relationship, with the narrator a stalker (‘Hey I’ve been talked about the way I’ve been following you – but I don’t give a damn when it feels so right!’) Eric Stewart proves again that he’s one of the best pop singers of the day with a great vocal full of love and honey, the arrangement is subtle (with O’Malley’s muted, mournful sounding synthesiser part particularly spot-on) and there are more hooks in this one song than on the rest of the album. Of course, we’ve heard this sort of song lots of times before over the years and there isn’t the usual 10cc intellectual twist going on here – but arguably this song sounds better for not having one, adding a touch of emotion to an album that badly needs it. Lyrically, too, this is nothing special but it does its job and there’s a particularly strong second verse where the narrator says thinking without feeling is simply stupid (‘You’re living in a world where reason is a waste of time, nobody talking, the atmosphere cold!’) A likable song – whatever the narrator’s motives really are – this song’s quiet, humble melody and appealing sounds should have made the song a much bigger hit than it was. Sadly it’s the only song from this whole album to be re-issued as part of the band’s ‘Tenology’ box set in 2012 – although at least its one of the best things here.