31 December 2024 - Chappell Roan - Pink Pony Club

I have to admit, it has taken me a while to get into Chappell Roan.  

Yes, this is my 2nd post of one of her songs, the first in April of this year.  When I posted that, I really wanted to like her.  I posted that song, which was pretty good, because I really wanted to like her music. 

But then I got bombarded by her music - a lot of which, I didn't really intially like (I've come around on some of it since then).  So, I slept on her.   

So what made me come around?  First of all, her public persona is brash and charming, and that got me to give her a second chance. Second, as I did some research, I discovered this song - which was one that faded into the background for me as just noise.  

"Pink Pony Club", co-written by Chappell Roan and Daniel Nigro, was inspired by The Abbey, a real gay bar in West Hollywood, CA.  When she came from the Midwest, she considered The Abbey to be the first place to be herself.  The song is semiautobiographical - and I find that vulnerability to be absolutely riveting. (No, Chappell Roan wasn't a stripper).  

The song and video were recorded in 2020.  This was one of the first times she had been recorded performing - and you can see the nerves in her face.    

And, although the song and video were recorded in 2020, it did not enter the charts until 2024, peaked at #26 in the United States and higher elsewhere. 

When she performed the song on Saturday Night Live last month, the nerves were gone.  Hell, it gave me CHILLS when she got the SNL crowd to sing it!  This is absolutely something she does at every show - and this is usually the closing song - but this hit different.

So yeah.  I took an artist I struggled to get into, and made her my last post of 2024.  

And I want you to remember that this is generally her last song at a concert - and it in itself is an emotional rollercoaster - with a piano section, strings, and some pretty heavy rocking parts. And she brings THIS MUCH ENERGY.  

There are very few songs that get me actually choked up - and when she throws it to the crowd, this is one of them. 

This is the energy we're bringing into 2025.

30 December 2025 - Once A Tree - Whatever You Do Kid?

I have to be honest - I get so jazzed for Maple Leaf March that I write some of these posts six months in advance.  I wrote this in August - and will likely rewrite some of it.

And then release it three months early.   Because, well, this was my 8th most listened to song of 2024, and the highest ranked song for which no post previously existed.  

However, I wanted to share that I am a Spotify user, and this song - well, it's my most listened to for the last four weeks - and Once A Tree is my 5th most listened to artist all year.  

I'm now revisting this as the year-end list from Spotify comes out.   You see - Once A Tree was my 5th most listened to artist all year - which, completely believable.   I really dove right in on them.  They had a new EP come out this year that was incredible.  I'd argue that combining my Once A Tree listening with my Jayli Wolf (#2) listening - and they should ABSOLUTELY be tied together because, c'mon, don't make me say it - would make my most listened to artist by a mile. 

No disrespect to my Spotify-annointed #1, Charlotte Cardin, who I ALSO listened to a ton. 

Also, no disrespect to Hayden Wolf, who is absolutely the producer for both. 

I have been very curious about this, and not specifically about Once A Tree - but about the algorithm in general. I have requested my Spotify data, and will let you know what I learn - probably in March.  Short answer: I ran the numbers and I was right, but not by much. 

Back to this song.  From their 2020 EP Fool's Paradise, this song is one of my favorites of theirs (probably why it was my 8th most listened to song of 2024). But it was more than that for me.  You see, I spent a lot of 2024 out of work.  I was starting to get a little down on myself, and then I started getting in-person interviews.  I played this song in the car on the way to a few of them.  I was offered every job that followed this song's playing.  Coincidence? Probably - I was qualified for the jobs - but I choose to think not.  

Supposedly, this was a "stripped down" version of the same song.   Maybe Jayli didn't wear socks for this version?   

I couldn't resist that joke.  

27 December 2024 - Phantogram - Attaway

Did you know Phantogram had a new album out? 

I knew there was one coming, but I didn't know it was out.  

Well, yes. Memory of a Day was released in October, and I didn't even notice. 

Here's a song from that album.  

It, like everything else they release, is a banger.

26 December 2024 - ROSÉ & Bruno Mars - APT.

This song is a GLOBAL phenomenom.  GLOBAL.

Like, looking at the Wikipedia page for this song - one thing I look at is chart performance.  I have NEVER seen a longer list for one song.  

And I understand it.  It's a fun, energetic earworm that you will now be humming for the rest of the day.  Co-written by the artists and a large team of collaborators (including credits for the composers of the Toni Basil classic "Mickey"), the song is broadly commercially AND critically successful.

But back to the composition. Rosé was the original writer... and its title and premise - and chorus - are directly based on, and this isn't a joke, a Korean drinking game.  She was concerned about how broadly appealing a song about a drinking game might be.  She didn't need to be, though. 

By the way, I think the end of this video is a Breakfast Club homage.  What do you think?  Let me know in the comments. 

What I love about this song...

OK, for this, I need you to go back to what I said about live performances of "On The Ground" when I wrote about that song.  

I add this "live" performance to illustrate a piece of the K-pop machine that I don't really enjoy.  There's several videos like this. Rosé CLEARLY wants to sing her song.  She's fully capable of singing her song.  The helper track is turned up so high she can't.  

Contrast that to THIS live performance, which she's REALLY singing.   It's not about the dancing.   It's about the music. 

Even better is this live performance with Lee Young-Ji standing in for Bruno Mars... who we have not even talked about here.  It's because, as fun as he is, Rosé is the one bringing the energy here.   

25 December 2024 - Cœur de pirate - Noël Sous Les Tropiques

Well, here we are.  Christmas.

I hope your Christmas is in the tropics, or wherever you are happiest this time of year.  

I give you my gift of music.  My gift, of course, is that I have œ on back my clipboard.  This is a French language classic, performed by Béatrice Martin.  

Merry Christmas!

24 December 2024 - Cœur de Pirate et Les Appendices - All I Want For Christmas is You

So, I was sitting here, on another Christmas Eve, and I didn't know what to give you.

Then I remembered - I have a œ on my clipboard.

This time, ❤️ de Pirate teams up with francophone musical comedy troupe Les Appendices to cover a Mariah Carey classic that I KNOW you heard 150 times in the last month.  

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!!!!

23 December 2024 - Tate McRae - It's ok I'm ok

So, if you look at my Spotify Wrapped, you'll see an artist that looks like something of an outlier.

Tate McRae. 

And yet this Calgary native is out there, making music that's giving us all Britney Spears flashbacks. Of course, the video is just as campy as the music as well.  

By the way, she writes her own stuff, which is impressive.  The song is about a woman who is very happy to see her ex is not with her anymore - and she's warning the new girlfriend.  It's a clever song. 

The song was a top 20 hit in the US and a worldwide hit overall.  Which is great.  The song is damn catchy. 

The way she debuted this song was kind of crazy.  It was just an encore she pulled out during a show at Madison Square Garden - completely out of left field.  No one saw it coming.  Except, I assume, her dancers and other tour crew.  Her record label.  Her management.

OK, I didn't see it coming.