30 August 2023 - Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer

Summer is almost over, and we're finally getting to this song.  

We've been largely avoiding the hits on top of the pop chart this summer, mostly because it's been strange and partly because some of it has been terrible. But, now that we're at the end of the summer, we feel like we should address it.

How is a four year old song that had a run on the pop charts and was a top 30 hit in 2019 suddenly a top 5 hit in 2023?!  

If you weren't aware, Taylor Swift is on tour.  I know.  She's kept it pretty low-key.  But yes.  And this song from 2019's Lover album, not released as a single but still a minor hit in 2019, was featured prominently on her tour this year.  It makes sense - in a summer dominated by country music, a song that bridges her origins in country (the 2nd half of this song is clearly country-music influenced) and her current pop focus (this song is incredibly synth-heavy) fits in well.   

Co-written by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Annie Clark (who is St. Vincent and we hear clear shadows of "Los Ageless", which was also written by Jack Antonoff and Annie Clark, by the way), the song is not a Bananarama song, but rather a song about a summer romance and the associated pain. 

The song became so popular as part of the tour that Republic Records rereleased it as a single and it took off, peaking at number 3 on the pop charts. 

Those who read this blog know that I'm not a huge Taylor Swift fan and I did not attend this tour.  This song, however, is fantastic. 

Her current tour has a remarkable similar setlist every single night.  Every show opens with a couple of songs from the Lover album, and this song is the 2nd song in almost every show.

Shockingly, people have recorded this song live on the tour.  This is from her stop in Santa Clara, California. (edit: Taylor's people like to take down videos by her fans, so here is the performance in the Eras Tour movie.  It's literally the same performance at a different show, this one in LA)

29 August 2023 - MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This

Why yes, that is a Rick James sample that dominates this song.  In fact, Rick James and Alonzo Miller - the original writers of "Super Freak" - are listed as co-writers of the song.  

But let's be clear.  This song was written and produced by MC Hammer.  

How big a hit was it?  Well, in the short term, it was a big, but not mega-big, hit.  It was the THIRD single from MC Hammer's 3rd album, 1990's Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em. This song, however, got airplay long before it was released as a single, and that drove album sales - to the point where it was the longtime best selling rap album of all time (it has since fallen to 5th on that list).  

The single itself was a top 10 hit on the pop charts - never making it to the top spot, though.  It was also a number 1 R&B hit, and a hit worldwide.  Moreover, it brought rap to a much broader audience, including many in my group of friends at the time.  

You know the song.  Now, it's Hammer time.  

One thing about MC Hammer... you probably know him for what he recorded.  His live performances were full of energy.  He was one of the most dynamic performers of his generation - which made him an excellent bridge from the old school sound that dominated the 1980s to the more in-your-face rap style of the 1990s.

Did I say "were"?  MC Hammer famously lost all his money from "U Can't Touch This" pretty quickly, which means he didn't get to just retire (although all indications seem to be that he recovered from that).   Twenty years after the song came out, he was still touring and still putting on a hell of a show. 

Here he is in 2018, STILL performing this song.  Yes, he's got other people doing his dancing, but he's still putting on a hell of a show.

28 August 2023 - Nine Inch Nails - Only

Look, I know.  It hasn't been that long since we published our first Nine Inch Nails song.

We were doing a thing that week.

Anyway, this is a different, not so loud song.  It's not quiet, mind you - but it's less in-your-face angry and more synth-pop-rock angry.  It's about Trent Reznor's job - as a musician, with real business pressures - and how that clashes with his desires - as a musical artist, and keeping his integrity.  

In 2005, this was the first single off of Nine Inch Nails's fourth album, With Teeth.  That's sixteen years after their - his? - debut, and six years since the previous album.  The video is almost completely CGI - no, Trent Reznor did not stick his face into a pinscreen repeatedly - and the only non-CGI pieces are the hand belonging to David Fincher, who directed the video, and the fuzzy cars you occasionally see in the background.  

As should be no shock, this has become a live performance favorite, and it hits so much louder and harder live.

25 August 2023 - The Beatles - We Can Work it Out

So, this is a weird song in how it's constructed.  Let's breat it down.

Paul McCartney took the first stab at it, writing the lyrics - probably about a relationship he was having with British actress Jane Asher at the time.  She been happily married for forty years, so don't ask her.   He then took it to John Lennon, with whom he came up with the middle part ("Life is very short...")

But you might notice a tempo change in the middle.   That's more than a tempo change.  That's a change to 3/4 time - and that was the brainchild of the uncredited George Harrison.  It, by design, sounds like a waltz, in contrast to the pop-rock sound of the rest of the song.  

The song also goes from optimism in the verse and chorus to a slightly less optimistic and more philosophical tone in the middle.  It's quite interesting to listen to the song go thematically and muscally back and forth.  Paul took the lead vocal roles, with John joining with harmonies in the middle. 

"We Can Work It Out" was release in December 1965 as a double A-side single - along with "Day Tripper" - and quickly became a #1 hit,   It's worth noting that Stevie Wonder also had a hit with the song in the early 1970s with the song.  

24 August 2023 - Charly Bliss - Capacity

"Weezer with Tommy Pickles as a lead singer"

I wrote about Charly Bliss a couple of years ago, and then, I promised to revisit them.  I didn't think it would take me this long - but I got really sick of their earlier stuff, which was very much like Weezer.

This 2019 single by Charly Bliss is possibly their best known song.  Written by the band, the song is sung by lead vocalist Eva Hendricks, and not E.G. Daily.  The lead single from their 2nd album, Young Enough, it's a lot poppier than their earlier work.  

It's an interesting song, about the power of saying no, because, well, you're at capacity.

If you're familiar with their earlier work, you know that Eva Hendricks plays guitar on top of her vocals. As you can see - and pointing to their move from rock to pop - she has moved to keyboard during live performances.  Also, I wish my dining room was this cool.

23 August 2023 - Echosmith - Lonely Generation

"Echosmith Is Back, and Wants Us to Put Our Phones Down."

That's what the Billboard headline read.  

Of course, ignore the lyrics and this sounds like a chipper pop ditty.  You could be forgiven for hearing this as some bright pop song, like "Cool Kids". Lyrically, though - it's not chipper at all.  It's dark and sad, and really does encourage real connection.

The kicker here is that this song was written and released by Echosmith in 2019.... before the pandemic.  That made the lonely generation even lonlier - and makes this song more poignant. 

By the way, I'm not sure if I've said it before, but Echosmith is a sibling band - originally 4, but now 3.  How they fit all that musical talent in one family is a marvel.

Anyway, here they are performing the song live.

22 August 2023 - Big Data ft. Joywave - Dangerous

Big Data is Alan Wilkis, a producer.  His music project is an electronic one.  This song is billed to him and billed as featuring Joywave.  

Wilkis co-wrote the song, but so did Daniel Armbruster, who used to be the other half of Big Data and was, at the time, the vocalist for a Rochester, NY band called Joywave, and its his voice and the band's music you hear in this version.  The song is super bass-heavy, which is cool as heck.

You knew I had to drop Rochester in there.  I lived there for 26 years, after all.  

It's kind of blurry who this should be billed to.  What isn't blurry is that this collaboration is both the biggest hit Big Data ever had, but also the biggest hit Joywave ever had.  

The video is violent and depicts the marketing of an athletic shoe that incites violence.  

The lyrics video took a different approach - showing the dangers of, well, big data.  An accompanying app - which seems to not work anymore - would make a video out of your Facebook timeline.  Seriously.

What also is not blurry is that Joywave doesn't perform with Big Data.  They are separate bands, with separate members.  The male vocalist (who's doing a lot of the electronic work as well) is Alan Wilkis. Not gonna lie, I like this version, too.   

(Update: 4 October 2023) Joywave actually didn't play this song live until 2021.  They chose their hometown of Rochester, NY to pull it out for the first time.  They also pulled out not one, not two, but THREE bass guitars to make sure you could hear that sound from space.