« Denver/Boulder: Shows this week | 6.9 - 6.15 | Main | Numerology: Hits From Halfway »
June 09, 2008
This is Pop!
Under oppressive heat conditions here in New York City, and it's too gross and sluggish to deal with anything but the most direct strikes to the pleasure center. Grilled hot dogs, cold beer, immaculate super-pop, etc. Luckily, two bullets of finely produced aural love have been shot from the gat of the creator Himself. Don't worry, stay seated behind the fan. They'll come to you.
Annie - "I Know Ur Girlfriend Hates Me"
Norwegian crush Annie Lilia Berge Strand returns to hit the day-glo mark she deserted way back in '04. The best thing about this song, besides Richard X's supernaturally tight production I mean, is that it's so much more innocent than it initially seems. You expect songs of this ilk to slip in a lascivious come-on or two, but Annie takes the high road. She's not the target of the titular girlfriend's malice because she's catting around with her man, so much as for simply being in his company. The girlfriend in question is a total psycho, after all. It's there in the account of his "records broken in two," and in the baseless ultimatums she's laying down. Annie just swoops in to illuminate the situation and give her pal some sound advice about sticking up for himself. If there's anything untoward happening in the song's margins, it's strictly in the imagination of the listener (or perhaps a by-product of the verve given to her adorable "have I got news for you-oo" kiss off). With a direct reading, Annie is motivationally pure and thus her pop charms come without any disqualifying ick factor.
And you know any song that ends with the sounds of an ice cream truck leading giggling children away takes its summer-jam status seriously.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor - "Heartbreak Make Me a Dancer"
Looking over the first post I choked out for this site about posh princess Sophie Ellis-Bextor, I'm kind of embarrassed about how embarrassed I seemed. I was listing all sorts of biographical/nostalgic reasons for liking her instead of clearly articulating her music's appeal. Her best work showcases a combination of upper-crust vocal class and frictionless precision in production that should be acknowledged directly (with no phony base-covering caveats). I suspect this isn't going to be the widespread hipster consensus, as Annie was sort of a harbinger for music nerds easing their distrust of pure bubblegum pop music and our heroine made her first splash in a full-throttle, Strokes-flavored, guitar=authenticity throwback moment (with some awesomely cheesy material no less), but I think Sophie's new anthem takes the post's first prize. There's a complexity in Sophie's emotional range in this song that outshines several legions of bearded young men with guitars. She's going through the motions of a hedonistic club ritual, but you get the feeling that she's not even quite ready to leave her house yet. It's a tricky note to hit, but Bextor makes it seem effortless.
Does it say something troubling about my subconscious that SEB's heartbroken minx act is more devastating to me then Annie's self-assured hellcat? I counter claim that the Freemasons production team's relentless disco pulse is just closer to my current heart, as I leave you to psychoanalyze.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at June 9, 2008 10:35 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.merryswankster.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/1627
Comments
Sweet - thanks for this Jeff.
Posted by: Max Heering at June 10, 2008 05:43 PM
Thanks! And I too find the heartbroken minx act more appealing, both in relation to these tracks and on a whole... hmm.
Posted by: mim at June 11, 2008 12:21 AM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
