Japandroids are two dudes from Vancouver who are quite loud. Their first album Post Nothing was the kind of cobbled-together diamond in the lo-fi rough that I needed to convince me it wasn’t a fruitless genre. Full of sunny, poppy hooks, “whooooaaaaaohhhhhohhhhh” sing-along choruses and surprisingly economical, if playfully juvenile, lyrics.
Now they return, three years older but just as hammered. And if music can keep you young, while making you go deaf, this is the album to do it.
Continuing the series “Catchy, Good, or Both” we move to Carly Rae Jepsen’s bowel movement smash hit “Call me Maybe”.
This is Carly Rae Jepsen (not to be confused with Corinne Bailey Rae, Rae Dawn Chong, or Judy Rae Jetson). She’s a 26-year-old (her age is very important to this analysis) Canadian singer-songwriter. She placed third (THIRD!) on the 2007 season of Canadian Idol (known then by its’ working title: Nobody) and she has since been trotting out releases. But nothing has charted higher than #32 on the Canadian charts until “Call me Maybe” (which has now hit number 1 in Canada, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK. It currently sits at #4 in the US). So far we have a pretty good case for this song being catchy…
So, as we did last time, let’s start by looking at the things about this song that are catchy:
-First and foremost that chorus hook. In particular the melodic phrasing of “I just met you, and this is crazy.” Along with the synthy string stabs, very 1977-cum-1994.
-The layering of her vocals in the chorus. It sounds like 5 Carly Rae’s vying for my attention. Easy ladies, I can only take one of your numbers at a time!
-…
Now, let’s look at the things about this song that are decidedly not good:
-First off, giving a person your number isn’t really that crazy. In fact, it’s one of the least “crazy” ways you can possibly initiate a relationship with someone. As my boy Rembert Browne said in his brilliant dissection of the current top 10, “I just can’t believe Carly is 26. No one in their mid-20s should think that it’s crazy to have just met someone.” I think the lyric should be “Hey, I just met you / And this is craaaazy / But I’m on bath salts / Your FACE LOOKS TASTYYY!!!!!” (too soon?)
-Carly has been criticized for “younging down” her lyrics and image so as to appeal to a tween audience. This is a tactic that has been around, in various forms, for a long time (looking in your direction 90210). But if your entire purpose is to compromise your artistic aspirations in order to sell more records does it still count as selling out? I’m gonna go with yes.
-This song is insanely repetitive. That’s not always a bad thing. But if there are irritating aspects of a song they’re made all the more irritating when they’re repeated. Even in the “bridge” section it’s the exact same melody and there’s not a whole lot of shift in dynamics after the first 10 seconds of the track.
Will the U.S. buck the international trend and keep “Call me Maybe” from reaching number 1?
This writer hopes so.
Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call me Maybe”
Verdict: Pretty Catchy, Ungood
Bob Dylan liked writing about his dreams. A lot. And there were a lot of them. Well, there were at least 115. “Isis” is the kind of dream normal people don’t have, but I’m sure Bob had all the time. It’s a very detailed account of a journey that begins with the mysterious Isis falling through the narrator’s fingertips (clearly she thought he was so reckless).
What follows is not adequately explicated by the word “epic”. Dylan and his shady cohort (“are you looking for something easy to catch?”) travel high and low to come to the grave they hope to rob. But the casket is empty “there were no jewels no nothing, I felt I’d been had”. So he lets his companion die, (you know, like you do) and journeys off to find the real prize, the woman that he “couldn’t hold onto” at the beginning of the song. This rollicking arc ends with a very simple exchange which, for whatever reason, is probably my favorite thing Dylan ever wrote (well, other than this).
“She said ‘where you been?’ I said ‘no place special.’ She said ‘you look different.’ I said ‘well, I guess.’ She said ‘you been gone.’ I said ‘that’s only natural.’ She said ‘you gonna stay?’ I said ‘if you want me to, yes.'”
Listen to “Isis” by clicking here, it will open in a new tab.
Stream the whole album “Desire” by clicking here (my favorite Dylan album).
I saw Passion Pit live a few weeks ago and was all about this song. I thought it was the strongest of the new tunes they played that night. When I saw this morning it had been released as the first single I was psyched.
But it doesn’t sound like I thought — or was hoping — it would sound. The live version had a similar bumpiness to Manners fan favorite “Little Secrets”. The studio version isn’t so sonorous.
Doesn’t mean it’s bad. On Manners, Michael Angelakos sounded like an over-caffeinated ghost shouting in at the music from the periphery. His voice is very much at the center here and the lyrics are refreshingly decipherable, the story of the birth and death of the American dream in a busted economy.
Check out “Take a Walk” below. Gossamer, Passion Pit’s new album, comes out July 24th.
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