Amethyst Kelly is back. And she came back with a really good album in 2021 - The End of an Era - preceded by three good singles. The best was this, the third single that was a short club banger.
Admit it, you're dancing right now. I am!
By the way, watch for the "Work" throwbacks in the video. This album in general and this song in particular was meant to bookend the first phase of her career - kind of a recap of the last decade, if you will. In that context, it really works.
In 2004, this song was absolutely everywhere. It's a hard rockin' song that brings the melancholy hard. A worldwide hit, it was Hoobastank's high water mark from a chart success standpoint - reaching #2 in the US and #1 in several other countries.
Nominated for two Grammys, the song was probably made more popular by the iconic video, which tells an elaborate story of what looks like an accident but ends up being a heist. It, of course, has zero to do with the subject matter of the song - but it's a cool story.
For once, I'm going to ignore the œ here - and it's for this reason I've held off on posting this. How much Cœur de Pirate do you actually need? She adds a little to the song, but it's Georgio's song.
The song is about the uncertainty of love in the modern era - a fuzzy concept in the narrator's eyes. He's been waiting for a sign from the girl he loves - someone he should probably just let go of. He eventually gets there, but the song is painful and sad while he does.
Most of you know that I am a huge ONJ fan. Always have been. Perhaps part of it is the greatest movie musical involving roller-skating. I am, of course, speaking about Xanadu.
This song, a huge hit for Newton-John in 1980, was used in the movie when her character, Kira, whose origin you don't know at the time, meets Sonny, the Michael Beck character, and they fall in love. The song, although, in the context of the movie, is a lot more than this, stands alone as a love song - a love that's always been there, predestined.
Wikipedia considers this song "disco" and "soft rock". OK, I guess so, but it came at the tail end of the disco era, and still spent 4 weeks at #1 - finishing 1980 as the 3rd biggest hit of the year.
DJ Dan Murphy and Steve Peach remixed the song in 2011, for ONJ's charity, the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre. She did reenter the studio to rerecord the vocals for this project, which also featured a music video with a large cast.
I didn't want to let the day go by without acknowledging this.
You might have noticed in my last post, about an hour ago, that I included a songwriting credit. All I have to say that, if you noticed that, good 4 u.
Yes, Hayley Williams and Josh Farro from Paramore got a songwriting credit on Olivia Rodrigo's song because Olivia Rodrigo interpolated the chorus of "Misery Business" into "good 4 u". The two songs are distinct enough that there isn't overt stealing - but the right thing was done by giving the songwriting credit to Williams and Farro.
The lyrics of THIS song were written by Williams, about Farro, on whom she had a crush.
Olivia Rodrigo is PRESENTLY nominated for seven Grammy awards, including one for this angry, sarcastic, biting song that she wrote - more specifically, THIS music video.
The song itself, co-written by Rodrigo along with Dan Nigro, Hayley Williams and Josh Farro, was her 2nd #1 hit from her debut album, Sour - a feat that had never happened before. Musically, it flows between pop-punk, grunge, and, well, music that Taylor Swift could be making. In addition to its #1 performance on the US pop charts (where it also spent 11 weeks at #2, tying the record), it topped charts around the world and cemented Olivia Rodrigo as a superstar.
Here she is, performing the song on Saturday Night Live in 2021. Clearly, she couldn't drop the crowd-pleasing f-bomb in the 2nd verse, but her laugh right after stayed in.
Released on their 1988 album Green but intended for 1989 single release (hence the title), the story of this song isn't really the song - which is a pretty standard pop song parody lyrically, and unimaginative in its simplicity musically. The video featured three topless women and a topless Michael Stipe dancing. This is the age restricted video you can't see below.
However, you can't show nipples on MTV. So, Michael Stipe put black bars on all the nipples, including his - because, as he said, "a nipple is a nipple."
It's rare that a B-side to a single is the same as the A-side, and yet, an acoustic version of "Pop Song 89" was the B-side. It is, in my opinion, a better version of the song - showing the beauty of the arrangement and the biting parody of the lyrics a little more pointedly.
