I’m Greg Kennelty, senior news writer for MetalInjection.net, and I shamelessly like pop music. I don’t keep up with it though, so members of Pop Break suggest songs for me to review and I do exactly that! Sometimes because they’re good songs, sometimes because they’re terrible and easy to rip apart. In the end it’s all in good fun and I get turned on to some cool artists here and there… and maybe you do too.
On that note, let’s get started!
Muse – “Dead Inside”
I’m not one of those fans that cries “foul” when a band up and changes their sound. Artistic expression is artist expression no matter how you slice it and ultimately that sound is how the artist feels is best to communicate with its audience at that time. That being said, Muse has been writing the same fucking song for three records now and somehow we’re just letting it slide like the group isn’t doing exactly that.
Let’s see… domineering drum beat that’s simplistic and a little militaristic? Check. Distorted fuzzy bass that’s backed up with a keyboard sample? Check. Some form of guitar usage that comes in more or less with the rest of every instrument Muse uses in the chorus? Check. Vocals that use a lot of lingering falsetto and the same texture harmonies that have been played out over and over again? Check. Well, it’s definitely a Muse song!
I mean, come on. These are the dudes that put out asthmatic insanity like “Thoughts of a Dying Atheist” and “Knights of Cydonia.” These were the guys that actually sat down and seemed to have carefully crafted songs with a lot of great effects, catchy riffs and a whole slew of interesting styles. Now we’ve just got Muse sitting at a kitchen table yelling “WELL WHAT IF QUEEN SOUNDED LIKE THIS INSTEAD OF THIS?” For a song or two that’s fine, but now the writing is getting stale.
Also, Matt Bellamy knows you can write about other topics than government conspiracy, right? Like, nobody told him if he stopped the government would come and arrest him? Just checking. Dude acts like he just sits in a room and reads 1984 over and over again, but keeps hoping for a happier ending with an uprising.
MisterWives – “Reflections”
When I first turned this song on I was sure I was about to have to suffer through three minutes of some whiney-ass “moody” pop song that cryptically talked about feelings or some garbage. You know exactly what I’m talking about whether or not you want to admit it- the regular pseudo-intellectual crap that’s praised on the radio as deep because people can’t words good with the reading and expression.
Where was I… oh right. This song is catchy as fuck. Around the 40-second mark the whole thing gets right up out of the boring chair it was sitting in, paints the room every color it has sitting around on the floor and dances like you’re not standing right there. “Reflections” is one of those songs that by the time its over, you’re scrambling to hit repeat or enjoying the fact that the song started over due to your foresight of making sure “repeat” was on in the first place.
My only real complaint about this track is that it’s three minutes long and not closer to five. The hooks are there and Misterwives knows damn well that they’re there, yet they don’t stick around long enough to really get into the listener. On the flip side, that’s a great tactic to make me want to listen again and again, but an extended version of the catchier bits of the track and a little less introduction would be most excellent. It’s well-written with just enough minimalism to let the whole thing breathe, yet all the punches are thrown in exactly the right places.
Complaining that a song isn’t long enough because I don’t have enough time to groove like a white guy grooves to it- check.
Taylor Swift – “Bad Blood (ft. Kendrick Lamar)”
I’m 99-percent sure I was the only male in Target the morning 1989 came out buying that CD for himself and not his teenage daughter. Not that I have a daughter, or son, but if I did I’m sure she’d have wanted this record… and she can get her own. This one is mine and I need to blast it in the car so strangers can stare at me and wonder what that bearded guy is really doing with his life.
“Bad Blood” stuck out to me as a sore thumb on the record to begin with. It just seemed like it was so try-hard badass that it didn’t fit in with this nostalgic, love-be-damned theme the rest of the record conveyed. All the bratty “heys” in the background just sat weird with me and the usage of the term “mad love” just felt contrived. I loved the record, but the amount time I listened to this song in comparison with the amount of times I jammed on the rest is super disproportionate.
So it makes that the song get even further ruined with Kendrick Lamar. The rap parts just don’t fit in with the song, even if I wasn’t familiar with the original arrangement. I know Lamar is capable of so much better than this lyrically too, which is also why I was a little disappointed. He seems to be on a completely different topic than Swift the entire time so when the chorus rolls around I’m left remembering what song I was listening to in the first place. On the plus side of the whole situation, it’s not like anything fantastic got ruined here. The worst song on the record just got even worse… oh well? Maybe we’ll get a killer video for “How You Get The Girl” next, because I am a sappy S.O.B. and would watch that several times.
I have nothing bad to say about the video- it’s awesome. Just super well done, lighthearted in a comic way and enjoyable to watch.
I’ve heard this song approximately 100 times between the day that it came out and right now, yet I had no idea who the artist was or what the hell the song was called. I actually wouldn’t have picked this out to be a Flo Rida song. Maybe some whatever-named DJ that happened to have a rapper on it, sure, but it seems pretty centered on the catchy melodies rather than the lyrics. I’ll chalk that up to being a plus.
Flo Rida has always been on my periphery but I could never get into the guy’s music. He’s always releasing songs that are just pretty good but fall a few hooks short of a tackle box. Clearly he knows what’s up to a far enough extent considering he’s always played on the radio and everything like that, but he’s never gotten past name recognition for me.
Unfortunately this song doesn’t do it for me either. The melody is catchy and I’ll recognize it if I hear it, but there’s nothing extra going on to make it stick. The lyrics are definitely lyrics, the guest spots are certainly filled with guests and overall it’s a song that was produced well and has enough of a catch to make it to mass consumption.
I want to like Flo Rida. I like his ideas, but just… dammit this isn’t making the cut. I’m actually a little disappointed because it seems like he’s capable of way more than this.
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