I drove around town a lot this summer, and that meant a lot of time with commercial radio, which remains a hellscape of too many of the same songs (some of which are more than 30 years old—I’m looking at your Red Hot Chili Peppers “Under the Bridge”) played too often.
Still, there were highlights, and here they are:
Taylor Swift “Anti-Hero.”
My favorite lyric:
Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby
And I’m a monster on the hill
Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city
Pierced through the heart, but never killed
Olivia Rodrigo “Vampire”
And now I know that I was listening to the clean version of that song!
Aside from the raw anger, something Rodrigo does so well, I like the backup singers who follow the line “How do you lie without flinching?”
Noah Kahn “Dial Drunk”
There are two versions of this song, the first is Noah Kahn solo, the second with Post Malone
I’ve really enjoyed Stick Season both with and without guest artists. It brings back all the New England feelings, most of which aren’t great, but contains those feelings in a good way.
Independent of listening to it, I was about the song, especially this part:
I don’t like that when they threw me in the car
I gave your name as my emergency phone call
Honey, it rang and rang, even the cops thought you were wrong for hangin’ up
I remarked to Matt that it probably doesn’t matter if the cops thought he was wrong because they probably were just saying that. Matt commented that its super common for police to agree with people if it means they will get in the police car.
I don’t love Post Malone’s verse, but I do like the harmony that comes with his appearance.
Rema and Selena Gomez “Calm Down”
This was also the summer I watched Only Murders in the Building, so it was a big Selena Gomez summer because this song played Every. Single. Time. I was in the car.
The underlying rhythm is the thing that works in this song for me. I suspect if I knew the lyrics better I might not be so hot on the message.
The Fanta callout is fun, though.