Composition
"Sweet About Me" is a pop song that incorporates elements of blues and soul in its vocal tones. It utilizes a subtle electro beat, interspersed with layered pop production, and "retro-sounding" contemporary themes. The song has received different lyrical interpretations from critics. A writer from Contactmusic.com felt the song refers to making trouble and getting away with it, Nick Levine of Digital Spy noted that the song sounds lyrically bitter, namely in the line. "When you're playing with desire, don't come running to my place when it burns like fire boy'. According to Cilmi the lyrics are representative of having fun while making your mistakes, and learning from them along the way. According to sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Alfred Publishing, "Sweet About Me" is written in the time signature of common time, with a beat rate of 132 beats per minute. The song is written in the key of C major; Cilmi's vocal range spans from the note of G3 to the note of C5.
Cilmi uses a sweet and coarse vocal delivery which has been deemed as a misleading contrast between her mature sound and young age. Her vocal performance on the song is similar to that of a group act rather than that of a solo artist. She claims that the track's sound was a product of Xenomania's pop music experience and her lyrical ideas. While the song was being crafted she was influenced by rock bands Kings of Leon and Jet, "I wrote with who are totally different to me and came from a totally different musical background, they had worked with a lot of pop acts before and at the time I was listening to a lot of Jet and Kings of Leon, so when both our ideas met we came up with something pretty good." Musically, the song has been compared to Amy Winehouse's 2007 single, "Rehab", for their similar composition, soul and swing musical influences.
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