5 July 2021 - Cardi B ft. Megan Thee Stallion - WAP

The most infamous song of 2020 is finally here on Wicked Guilty Pleasures.  

The song itself was a huge hit worldwide, both commercially and critically, but let's look at it a little closer.

It is a collaboration between two women who rap, a field largely dominated by men.  It is, in fact, arguably the biggest hit by two collaborating rap artists.

It is a very explicit song, almost to the point of absurdity.  And, it is unapologetically so - neither of these women care if you're offended.

And the song is a true collaboration.  As much as their music demands a bit of bravado, neither upstages the other.  

Plus, the use of tigers in the video sparked a feud with Carole Baskin.... so, there's that.  

I have to admit something.

I wasn't a huge fan of this song until I heard this mashup with "We Appreciate Power" by Grimes.  Completely different song. Brilliant choice both titular (look at what that title spells) and musically.

2 July 2021 - Lorde - Solar Power

Fiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeee.

Here's the new Lorde song.  

I'm really glad we have new Lorde LITERALLY THE SAME WEEK I POSTED THE LAST ONE.

Couldn't have pushed that up a little for me, Ella?

Well, people are already talking about it being the Song of the Summer.  While it's still a bit early for that, the song is really cool and mellow.  While it does bear a resemblance to the Primal Scream song "Loaded" (which yeah, we posted earlier this week), Primal Scream is surprisingly OK with it.  

Enjoy.

1 July 2021 - Cœur de Pirate - Perséides (The Whole Album)

This is something we have never done before here.   

Ever.   

We are posting an album in its entirety.

We may never do this again.  It's a rare album that is worthy of such a focus and such praise.  This is that rare album.  

And, on this Canada Day, I chose an album that thoroughly celebrates a part of Canada.

At the beginning of June, I mentioned in a blog post an all-piano album that I could not stop listening to.  I still can't.  I first heard the album on its day of release, thanks to Spotify, and in fact listened to it more than once that day. I was on vacation and sitting in a hotel room, and... it hit me just right.  

The artist is Cœur de Pirate, and the album is Perséides. It is, thus far, my favorite album I've heard this year.   Clocking in at just over a half hour, it is 100% piano.  There is no vocal. There is no other instrument I can hear.  

This is a woman who, because of surgery, could (temporarily) not talk, let alone sing, and yet she found a way to compose, perform and release these deeply personal songs about places in Quebec that mean so much to her.  It's truly magic.

   

If you are not able to hear the album using the Spotify link, here it is on YouTube.  It is a playlist that starts from the first track:

30 June 2021 - Iggy Azalea ft. T.I. - Murda Bizness

Before she was all "Fancy", Iggy Azalea was establishing herself as pretty hard-edged.   We have featured Iggy Azalea on this blog several times - before AND after "Fancy".  

This song, her first collaboration with T.I., is one that we've missed, mostly because we never found a great spot to slot her in that flowed with the feeling we were going with - either in genre, or theme.  I've had this song sitting in my drafts for a couple of years.  

The song appears on her 2012 EP Glory and would serve as her debut single (although "Beat Down" came a few months earlier, that was Steve Aoki and Angger Dimas's single, not hers). For those not familiar with Steve Aoki, seeing a long-haired blonde Australian girl coming with an in-your-face style of hip hop was a bit of a shock.... but in a good way.  

Here she is performing the song live in 2013.  It is one of the first times she had ever performed live, and she absolutely brought the house DOWN.

29 June 2021 - Filter - Hey Man, Nice Shot

This song sounds really cool, right?  I mean, the guitar rift is one of the greatest from the mid-1990s.  Richard Patrick's delivery of his song is spot on.

So, listen to the song first with no preconceptions about what the song is about.  Just enjoy the song.

In January 1987, Robert Budd Dwyer, Pennsylvania State Treasurer, was convicted of bribery and was due to be sentenced for up to 55 years in prison.  The day before his sentencing, he held a press conference, maintaining his evidence.  At some point during the conference, he pulled out a revolver and took his own life, without injuring anyone else.

So, that's the "Nice Shot" Filter is referring to.  This song is about that incident.  There were rumors it was about Kurt Cobain.  Those are not true - the song was written in 1991.  

So, now listen to it again, with that in mind.  But here's a live version for you.

I won't be posting video of the incident.  If you want to see that sad, tragic spectacle, you can look for it yourself.  

28 June 2021 - Primal Scream - Loaded

I wanted to make sure I posted a band that Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor  has obviously never heard of.  

In all seriousness, this song, an acid house classic, was a top 20 UK hit for Primal Scream in 1990 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest dance songs of all time.  

I agree with that assessment - I played it on college radio the ONE NIGHT they let me do the dance show.  I don't think this was a contributing factor to me not doing that again (I made some questionable choices) but I thought it was great and I was certainly dancing to it in the studio, quite similarly to how I am dancing to it right now, as I write this.  

The song samples lines from the movie The Wild Angels.  

25 June 2021 - ABBA - Waterloo

Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus were looking to become better known songwriters.  Sure, they were known in Sweden, but not much outside.  So, how does a European group get attention for their songwriting?

Easy.  Enter the Eurovision Song Contest.  

Which this song won in 1974, as Sweden's entry.  And, it won handily.  

This single was the first credited to the group as ABBA, is is likely the only song ever to compare a relationship to a Napoleonic battle.  Usually, a song like this i.e. one that wins Eurovision isn't all that popular outside of Europe, but this song was different, igniting their fame worldwide.  

It is widely considered to be the greatest song to come out of a Eurovision competition.  

Of course, in order to QUALIFY for Eurovision, they had to perform the song for Sweden.  Which they did, at Melodifestivalen, a Swedish music festival for the purpose of picking the Eurovision competitor.  You might notice this version is a little different.  

By the way, lest you think I'm kidding about this Eurovision stuff, here are ABBA, watching the results come in, followed by them performing the song as winners.