Nitpicking the Hits: OneRepublic hopelessly endures the ‘Good Life’
In this feature, I examine the lyrics to a current Top 10 hit in excruciating detail for no reason other than to mock it—and maybe to encourage better pop songwriting.
The hit: Well, apparently OneRepublic is still a thing that exists. The Colorado Springs pop-rock band’s latest hit, “Good Life,” starts promisingly enough with a few measures of a live, edgy, funky breakbeat before it dissolves into a “Streets of Philadelphia“-esque synth wash and enough uplifting, acoustic grove to make even Blessid Union of Souls raise a questioning eyebrow. Then the Auto-Tuned whistle solo starts.
Chart position: This song somehow found its way into the top tier of the Billboard Hot 100 this summer despite the fact that it was released in 2009. As with so many things, its popularity can be traced back to the Canadian police drama Rookie Blue. The song appeared in the show’s debut episode in June 2010, and since then has showed up in trailers for Eat Pray Love, in the film Easy A, on an episode of Cougar Town, and backing Google’s popular year-in-review video, Zeitgeist 2010. This week the track fell one spot from its peak at No. 8.
The general idea: Despite the fact that the video shows the band in a some nondescript Colorado field, the song is all about living it up in London, New York and Paris, surrounded by a constant party and people clamoring to get to know you. Lead singer Ryan Tedder believes that maybe, quite possibly, this might just be the good life.
LET’S NITPICK THIS SUCKER
Woke up in London yesterday
Found myself in the city near Piccadilly
Don’t really know how I got here
I got some pictures on my phone
New names and numbers that I don’t know
Address to places like Abbey Road
What street is Abbey Road on again?
Is it just me, or does this whole scenario sound totally implausible? Like it was written by someone who has never been to London before in his life? I mean, I’ve never been beyond the confines of Heathrow (regrettably), and if for some strange reason I were trying to convince someone I’d been to London, this is about what I’d come up with.
“Uh, yeah, I visited, um … Piccadilly and, uh … Abbey Road! Yeah! That’s it! Right after Buckingham Palace, with those guards who never move and everything. Um, also Big Ben and double-decker buses.”
Day turns to night, night turns to whatever we want
I don’t know about you, but I’m turning night into cheesy tots.
Say oh, got this feeling that you can’t fight
Like this city is on fire tonight
I think he’s paraphrasing Nero here.
My friends in L.A. they don’t know
Where I’ve been for the past few years or so
So we’re supposed to believe that he’s this globetrotting rock star, but yet he hasn’t been to L.A. in a couple of years? I just don’t buy it.
Sometimes there’s airplanes I can’ t jump out
Oh, come now, you can jump out of any airplane. Go ahead and try.
Seriously. Try it.
We are god of stories but please tell me
What there is to complain about?
Oh yeah? Well, I am God of Subject-Complement Agreement, and I judge thee to be a abomination and banish you to Grammar Hell, where you’ll be forced to rework all your sentences so they no longer end in prepositions.
When everything is out
You gotta take it in
Here he is paraphrasing Pee Wee Herman, I believe.
Hopelessly
I feel like there might be something that I’ll miss
Hopelessly
I feel like the window closes oh so quick
Hopelessly
I’m taking a mental picture of you now
‘Cause hopelessly
The hope is we have so much to feel good about
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
I mean, really. What is up with this bridge? This guy is feeling hopeless because … life is good and there’s nothing to complain about? How exactly does one hopelessly take a mental picture? What does that even mean?
Here is an example of that word used correctly in a sentence: This song is hopelessly lazy in its attempts to cash in on feel-good vibes.
