Song Of The Week Archive

The worst song ever... or an underrated gem?? Admiring songwriter Benji Hughes (himself also underrated), defends it thusly:

“There’s some deep cheese going on there, for sure. It’s got that sax at the end. There’s some funny shit, too: ‘I stole behind her in the ­frozen foods /And I touched her on the sleeve.’ It sounds like he’s stalking her in the grocery store. But that song kicks the shit out of just about any other song that’s out right now, because he opens his heart and he says ­something. He’s not scared to do it. And it’s touching—the song has some power.”

Great reinterpretation of the Box Tops' classic. Trades the original's urgency for spacey, smoldering pleading. From 1969's "Green Is Blues". Thanks to Emily--who has always had better taste than her older brother--for the suggestion. (90s hip-hop fans: the intro was sampled by a Biggie track that you may recognize.)

Of all the works of the Jersey Turnpike's second-favorite son, Runaway has always stood apart. Bon Jovi's first single from 1984 feels to me like a pastiche of something, maybe a hard-rock minor-key interpretation of a 50s crooner tune. Also Roy Bittan, one of my musical heroes (and not normally a Bon Jovi member), played the keyboard line.

The Saavedra sisters continue to work past their precocious child-indie-band years. New single from Chaos Chaos' upcoming EP "Committed To The Crime." A little rough around the lyrical edges but the most accessible (and synthpoppy) track they've made yet.

Bishop Allen, one of my favorite bands, is back after five years of quiet with a whole new album. I'm conflicted. With a couple exceptions (this track being one of them), this isn't a great album or more importantly, a real Bishop Allen record.

Pop kindling: lights fast, burns bright, gone to ashes in the blink of an eye. Bleachers is the solo (?) project of Fun's Jack Antonoff (I'd assumed that Nate Ruess was the primary auteur in that band, but apparently Ruess brings the theatrical sensibilities and Antonoff contributes the drive). This is from the just-out debut, "Strange Desire".

Billy's been following me around this week, playing softly on the radio in somehow every bar and cafe I've been to, so I dug back in to his wild and wonderful catalog. His music was my first pop obsession, and was I think the first concert I self-motivated to, 20 years ago this summer. Shlock though it all may be, I predict a renaissance in appreciation and popularity-- the millennials aren't old enough to remember that Billy was never really cool, and it's hard to argue with deft songsmithery. Exhibit A: here's an obscurity from the 1972 record "Piano Man"-- this one was never on the radio, never a Greatest Hit, never covered or played live, but yet! A compelling little gem-- he lands it every time.

Yet a second entry in the (surprisingly durable) foreign-language-unintelligible-pop-tune-that-repeats-a-girl's-name-over-and-over category. This one comes from one-off Swedish outfit "Nic & The Family." And why not? From 2004's "Hej Hej Skiva", their only album. Thanks to Nitin for sending it in.

Vivid vignette of a suburban late adolescence in the 80s. The original version by the Mountain Goats has long been a favorite track, and was a Song Of The Week here waaaay back in Jan '09. This brand new awesome cover by Shearwater (a long-running spinout of Okkervil River) trades up folk- for dance-rock; it's groovier and no less earnest I think. Thanks to John for the reference.

Italo-disco guy Tozzi scores minor European hit with this 1979 original, then sees his song reworked by Laura Branigan who proceeds to storm all charts with it in 1982/3. Lyrics are totally different, iconic synth line is intact.

New album out just this week from SF-based ambient/electronica artist Tycho; this is the title track. This song, like the others on the album, moves; has a momentum that I find missing from most ambient genre work. Added bonus: the album's graphic design is stunning and minimalist.

You'd think more bands would sound like the Beatles given their impact, but successful style pastiches are uncommon, maybe because they were actually quite subtle. Cheap Trick--apparently more talented than their two or three widely known singles suggest--seems to have done it here. In an alternate universe, if Lennon and McCartney had got together 20 years later instead, I think they'd have started out with tunes like this rock ballad from 1982's "One On One".

A short while back, we had a track demonstrating Queen-as-normal-blues-rock-band, and today we go all the way to the other side with Queen-as-70s-glam-musical-theater-rock-and-roll-ensemble. Freddie Mercury is brilliant as always, and he sneaks by a quick line about being "a sex machine ready to reload", perhaps encouraging a reading of the whole thing as a self-absorbed plea for noninterruptus coitus? From 1978's "Jazz."

They just don't make an alt-rock ballad like they used to. (Or a name: Joey peaked in the 60s, which makes him the right age for the subject of an alt-rock ballad from 1990.) Off of "Bloodletting". (Thanks to Phil for Concrete Blonde recommendation.)