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.
Smack! Crack! Hey, kids, it’s a digital vs. analogue showdown between a quintessential ’80s synthpop ballad and an acoustic dirge that leant some gravitas to the alternative revolution.
As related to Sean Nelson for a detailed article in the Seattle alt-weekly paper The Stranger, “My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist” was inspired by a particularly awful family canoe trip.
As you can see, America’s debt didn’t start skyrocketing until those no-account Bay Area troublemakers in the Kingston Trio charted with “Greenback Dollar” in 1962.
Pitbull advises all the dudes in the club to live for the moment and find a sexual conquest to take home, echoing the famous biblical passage Isaiah 22:13 (and I’m paraphrasing here): “Eat, drink and rub your junk up against a sexy lady on the dance floor, for tomorrow we die.”
In his typical, understated fashion, The Decemberists’ songwriter Colin Meloy has said little about this ballad other than, “This is a song about a gypsy.” In it, a dejected narrator pines over a young carny with tan skin, vintage footwear and strangely bewitching eyes.
I don’t want to dwell too much on the song’s title because it might just be a pretty word, but there’s something odd about trying to get someone to come “oceanside” when they’re already at the beach.
Ninety-nine essential Gregorian chants??? I would argue that the number of Gregorian chants any music collection requires is one at most. Any more than that is inessential.
In this installment, the bewitching vocal stylings of Stevie Nicks and Dolores O’Riordan face off to see which one will prevail as the other’s worst nightmare.
Nitpicking the Hits: Jeremih, 50 Cent bring club culture and rape culture together with “Down on Me”
Jeremih is simply offering to let this girl continue to put drinks on his tab. How considerate! When I saw the title to this song, I assumed it was going to be about oral sex. I guess I misjudged the gentleman.