Frankly, this kicks. It kicks superbly. It's a hard bluesy rock song that doesn't sound immediately derivative, the vocal performance is excellent, and the video is extremely clever. Simple but not shallow. Love it. Even if the song title is a fairly silly Seinfeld reference (just listen to the lyrics in the chorus...)
Wonderful pop song, with just enough dynamic wistfulness (which sounds like a contradiction, but Thoapsl says it isn't) to create some edge. I found the ultimate effect quite touching, to be honest; the song expresses a regret which you don't often hear in pop lyrics (ie: the title), but it's a sentiment which sure speaks to me at the moment. And probably to a lot of other people too, I'd guess. So it probably deserves to be a big hit, which probably means it probably won't be. Time'll tell...
Now, I find it hard to get excited about hip-hop. It's not that I actually dislike it as a musical genre, or anything; it's just that most of the hip-hop I hear inspires me to nothing more than "eh, that's pretty neat" or "meh, that's crap". I own only a handful of bona fide hip-hop albums, and hip-hop tracks make up only a small fraction of my iTunes; I can't even be bothered to finish this sentence. However, this track totally enthralled me. To begin with, the video is intriguing and cleverly-made: while it might at first seem to be pushing an ooh-lesbians! titillation angle, I think it's ultimately far less explicit or blatant (or genuinely exploitative) than any typical Top 40 imagery. More importantly, the music and the rapping on display here are just excellent. Listen to that slinky synth-bass riff... holy sweets! Who the heck are/is Atmosphere, anyway?
Okay, */recent-rage-highlights*. In other musical news, I bought the Crystal Castles album the other day. I'm still hugely confused as to why I like it so much – it's practically techno, and Thoapsl hates techno! Doesn't it..? – but for some reason garbled vocals and 8-bit-soundchip synths are a winning combination. The tunes are just so incredibly compelling... it sounds like Yoko Ono did the soundtrack to a Super Nintendo game, if Yoko Ono could write hooky pop melodies. Actually, it's great. Maybe a little grating at first glance, but it sure grows on you. Or on me, at least...
I may be trying to save money (trying, trying), but yesterday I read that Eddy Current Suppression Ring have just released their second album. I must have it. More on that anon.
–the Musical Thoapsl
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