Songs You May Have Missed #611

24 Feb 2017 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: , ,

mika

Mika (featuring Ariana Grande): “Popular Song” (2015)

Cheeky British singer-songwriter Mika sells platinum elsewhere but resides in the musical margins in the U.S.

Here with the help of Ariana Grande he sings a song about fickle popularity, karma and sweet schadenfreude.

La la, la la
You were the popular one, the popular chick
It is what it is, now I’m popular-ish
Standing on the field with your pretty pompom
Now you’re working at the movie selling popular corn
I could have been a mess but I never went wrong
‘Cause I’m putting down my story in a popular song
I said I’m putting down my story in a popular song

[Chorus:]
My problem, I never was a model,
I never was a scholar,
But you were always popular,
You were singing all the songs I don’t know
Now you’re in the front row
‘Cause my song is popular

Popular, I know about popular
It’s not about who you are or your fancy car
You’re only ever who you were
Popular, I know about popular
And all that you have to do is be true to you
That’s all you ever need to know

So catch up ’cause you got an awful long way to go
So catch up ’cause you got an awful long way to go

Always on the lookout for someone to hate,
Picking on me like a dinner plate
You hid during classes, and in between ’em
Dunked me in the toilets, now it’s you that cleans them
You tried to make me feel bad with the things you do
It ain’t so funny when the joke’s on you
Ooh, the joke’s on you
Got everyone laughing, got everyone clapping, asking,
“How come you look so cool?”
‘Cause that’s the only thing that I’ve learned at school, boy (uh huh)
I said that that’s the only thing that I’ve learned at school

[Chorus:]
My problem, I never was a model,
I never was a scholar,
But you were always popular,
You were singing all the songs I don’t know
Now you’re in the front row
‘Cause my song is popular

Popular, I know about popular
It’s not about who you are or your fancy car
You’re only ever who you were
Popular, I know about popular
And all that you have to do is be true to you
That’s all you ever need to know
(that’s all you ever need to know)

So catch up ’cause you got an awful long way to go
So catch up ’cause you got an awful long way to go

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2015/09/02/songs-you-may-have-missed-545/

mika-1

Songs You May Have Missed #610

08 Feb 2017 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: ,

blue-rodeo

Blue Rodeo: “Long Hard Life” (2016)

From 1000 Arms, the 2016 release by this Canadian roots-rock institution and multiple Juno Award-winning band.

Blue Rodeo’s two main singers and songwriters, Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor have been playing together since 1977.

Songs You May Have Missed #609

28 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: ,

trapper

Trapper Schoepp: “Ogallala” (2016)

Trapper Schoepp calls his latest album “a reflection of my record collection” as opposed to an album that reflects any particular genre. He also acknowledges it’s his inevitable road album, since he was fresh off of a couple years’ touring when he recorded it.

According to Shoepp, “Ogallala” was a song he dreamed up when he used NyQuil to get to sleep while suffering from a chest cold.

Songs You May Have Missed #608

25 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: ,

vague

Nouvelle Vague: “Ever Fallen in Love?” (2006)

Nouvelle Vague, with a new album released just late last year, continue to re-work 80’s new wave in ways that keep its flavor fresh. Here they bossa novatize the Buzzcocks in irresistible fashion from their 2006 album Bande a Part. Reprinted below is what we snarked in a previous post:

French production team Nouvelle Vague’s moniker is well-chosen: it translates into English as “new wave” and means “bossa nova” in Portuguese. And how handy for them, specializing as they do in bringing a beguiling Brazilian sensibility to MTV-chic artists such as Joy Division, Modern English, Echo and the Bunnymen, New Order and the like.

It makes one ponder what a timesaver it’d be if other artists employed the helpful tact of couching their mission statement in their band name.

“The Alan Parsons Project” could have been called “Vangelis with Lyrics”. “Electric Light Orchestra” might have been “Diet Sgt. Pepper”.

Young fans of southern rock (if there were such thing) could have been spared much confusion if “Lynyrd Skynyrd” began calling themselves “A Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute” after 1977. And how much of your download budget could’ve been better utilized had “Mumford & Sons” given fair warning and called themselves “The Bad Avett Brothers”? Perhaps “The Trans-Siberian Orchestra” might have chosen a name like “Nobody Cared About Us When We Were Savatage, But Hey–Christmas!”

I suppose that last one might not have fit on the music hall marquee.

Anyway, if you’re into Bossa Nova covers of the Clash–or need some ironic dinner music for your next chill party–check out the New Wave Bossa Nova of Nouvelle Vague.

See also: https://edcyphers.com/2015/10/14/songs-you-may-have-missed-551/

Songs You May Have Missed #607

25 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: ,

amnesia

Pousette-Dart Band: “Amnesia” (1977)

A song that starts with the line “you hit me on the head with your beer bottle” seemed an unlikely choice for recommendation here. But when the chorus of this 70’s soft rock chestnut kicked in, well, “something in my chemistry changed”.

That chorus is a neat summation of a sound that could be found on late 70’s radio, when Pure Prairie League and Marshall Tucker Band and Poco found their greatest success. And the slide guitar solo brings to mind the work of Joe Walsh in another notable country rock band of the day.

Pousette-Dart Band only cracked the top 100 once, with the lilting “For Love”, which perfectly sums up the late 70’s soft rock era of Player, Orleans, Chilliwack and the like:

Thanks Dave Geraci!

Songs You May Have Missed #606

01 Jan 2017 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: , , , , ,

bleu

Bleu: “Could Be Worse” (2003)

Bleu (a.k.a. James McAuley III) got help on his second full-length album from fellow power pop sympathizers like Semisonic’s Dan Wilson and Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish, who co-wrote and sang backup on “Could Be Worse”.

A fine point to note here is this example of top-notch songcraft: the melody accompanying the words “could be better” in the chorus mirrors the pitch pattern of the phrase commonly used when it is spoken.

A careful listener will catch this bit of cleverness now and then in a pop song. It’s usually the mark of a real pro.

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