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kinda mazzy star-ish arrangement. but with updated sensibilities. really dig it. gonna check out some of her other stuff
incredibly, Zemeckis et al said there will never be a remake as long as they're alive. which is astonishing. and something I'm grateful for. there aren't many things that can't be improved on - the original BTTF is one of them however. as for the song? love it. one of the songs that defines the 80s. 8/10 sounds right.
rich people gonna rich. lmao these people do essentially live on another planet from the rest of us huh
Yeah a 9 is due to my personal associations with the song (aren't ratings always?). Objectively maybe a 7. But damn just something about this song gets to me. And Tom's right about the production... the fretless, the echo-y, plinking pianos. All very chill, fully realized.
Also love the faux-Michael McDonald backing vocals in the chorus. And "I can feel your body move / It doesn't mean that much to me" is really quite a striking/haunting lyric for what on the surface could be just a regular old pop song.
I've always loved this song. Always got a good response during my busking days. Really nice melody, the verses have a really sweet and nostalgic vibe without being maudlin. Chorus is a fantastic hook, and really feels like a logical extension of the verse. Everything flows so nicely. Just a well put together piece of pop music. 9/10
We should all want as many people to vote as possible. As more people participate, the government becomes more representative of the people. If Republicans are worried that more people voting means less Republicans, then Republicans should take a look in the mirror rather than hand wringing over a greater percentage of the people participating in democracy.
NBC made millions off of Trump during the Apprentice years and ALL media outlets want Trump to win because he gets them controversy, and therefore ratings, and therefore MONEY. All these media companies are going to be just fine with Trump as president, and even better because he gives them tax cuts. To think that any media company wants Biden to win is just ridiculous. They want what is best for business and what is best for business is appearing to be "not taking sides" but in fact putting their thumb on the scale for a tight race. Tight Race = Ratings = Money for NBC.
pleasantly surprised by these songs. I think flying under the radar suits these guys well... I find that every time they put out material I enjoy it. I think their catalog overall is a mixed bag but the good stuff is very good.
that Live Aid performance sucks because Plant's voice is shot
I don't have a huge moment with this song, and this band didn't really register with me as a kid, but they've grown on me over the years. It's funny how they say they were trying to make American driving music because I did kind of rediscover this band through a burned CD of Songs from the Big Chair when I was living somewhere were I needed a car. I do like this song. It's breezy yet interesting. The guitar "solos" are really tasteful and cool. 7/10 sounds right.
if you told me this was on Side Two of "For Those About To Rock We Salute You" - an album I haven't listened to all the way through since high school - I might believe you
i mean this is perfectly ok
One of the main reasons I ever picked up the guitar. I suspect I am not alone here. RIP
just a raw, heartbreaking song. I was 11 years old when this came out - I didn't know anything about love obviously but I remember being tremendously moved by this song. This so perfectly encapsulates the whole "prom dance" approach to teenage love that was so prevalent in the 80s. I fell for it hook line and sinker. I remember wanting desperately to feel the way she feels in this song. There's just something so profound about that to me.. having it demonstrated that there's this world of urgency and emotions that's out there... you don't understand it yet but relate to it so deeply.. because you're human. We all know music taps into something so universal and unspoken. Hearing these soaring, beautiful songs as a kid really lets you know there's a whole world out there... makes you ache for it. and pisses you off when grownups remind you you're not there yet. Tom's right when he says there's no big note the performance hangs on... but there are tons of little ones. The spoken line at the end... the way her voice so slightly shakes at "Slowly now we begin to move" and the little trill on "deeper into yoooouuu"... the musical arrangement, I wouldn't change a thing. I like the oboe. i love the pulsating synths at the beginning. almost like hands at your back pushing you across the dance floor. i love, love this song. i can get absolutely lost in the nostalgia and the feelings it evokes. I used to cover it sparingly in my solo acoustic days but it always went over great. 10/10
Seems impossible to me that neither Love Shack nor Losing My Religion made it to #1. Those two songs were as ubiquitous as pop songs could possibly be when they were released. Never heard this song, and never listened to Accelerate. Like a lot of people I imagine, I lost track of REM after their drummer left. But it's pretty good! Maybe I'll give it a whirl on Spotify today. Automatic and Out of Time were huge records for me, and always loved their back catalog. Regret not catching them that one time they toured (they sold out MSG if I remember correctly). Great band. Really unique and passionate musicians. Nice writeup.
that really is a great sax solo. the chorus is a huge hook, but I think the verse melody really carries the song. When this showed up this morning, I groaned, remembering this tune as just a sleepy ooooh-ahhh fest, but it's actually got a bit more substance to it. 7's a little generous but I don't think a solid 6 is unreasonable.
fortune favors the bold. i declined to pay the, admittedly ridiculous, stubhub asking price and am left with nothing but regrets.. really loving this video though. thanks mr bungle. *sniff
best thing about Brexit and now this is that the British have lost all rights to turning down their noses at Americans. They've been proven to be just as stupid.
Not as strong a song as "Keep On Loving You" - a little bloated, a little more calculated... but still really effective. One of the songs of the soundtrack to my middle school crushes. I'm a big power ballad guy so as one of the Chuck Berrys of the genre, this band will always get props from me. If Keep on Lovin' You is a 9, I'll give this a solid 8. These guys really had faces for radio though. Huge Peggy Olson vibes from that first closeup of Cronin. and hot damn, Material Girl is such a great song. 9/10
love & appreciate the article but I still don't see the fascination with this song. like, yes, the hook is insanely good. iconic even. but the rest of the song is a huge flat nothingburger to me. Tom's obsessed with it so I've re-listened every time it's come up, hoping to latch on to something... the lyrics, the chords, the arrangement, but even having listened to it 5-6 times in the last few months I can't remember what anything else in the song sounds like. just totally forgettable outside that monster riff.
Always will remember this because it came out right around the same time as my novel, "Sentences"
the falsetto call and responses on the Hold Me Know chorus are one of my favorite things in all pop music
Hold Me Now is a 10. I Want to Know What Love Is is probably accurate at 6, but I think the verses and synths are a little more effective and haunting than that. I'd give it a 7.
maybe i'm being overly serious about this, but if I were Stereogum I'd be insulted. you write up all these artists over the years, then your site is in trouble, then you summon their help for a covers album to help save the site, and this guy gives you this coked out nonsense. and I say this as someone who liked Cloud Nothings a lot
not every song needs to be "Purple Rain" or "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman" or "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay"... there are different kinds of "Classics" There will always be a place in music for big, dopey love songs with huge singable choruses that everyone can sing at karaoke. This is one of those songs. I remember it fondly from "Saturday Morning Videos" and can sing every word from memory over 30 years later.
if you talk to god, you're religious. if god talks to you, you're crazy.
also the verses are nice and short - it's the perfect "don't bore us, get to the chorus" song. also a nice arrangement - the second verse is one couplet longer, there's a nice key change-ish thing in that second chorus... but it all flows real nice
unbelievable song. so much was made of this weird ass dance song with no bass in it. "Animals strike curious poses" is an all-time great lyric - evocative, mysterious, saying everything with one crystal clear image. just an amazing, hypnotic song. the guitar shred into weird vocal ad lib is such a killer opening.
one night I was deep into a Basinski hole and i almost pulled the trigger on an ebay Disintegration Loops vinyl. Something stopped me though, and I had the presence of mind to walk away from the computer for a few minutes. When I came back, I was able to walk away.
this band has never done anything for me. a couple good songs but I have no idea how they achieved such iconic status. everything about their sound is done better elsewhere and Simon Le Bon's voice and delivery is so corny. They why-y-y-y pre-chorus is just awful. Decent chorus melody but nothing else really remarkable or memorable about the song.
now THIS is the good stuff. i don't know how this guy does it but everything he releases is fucking magic and hits me right in that good music place.
I know absolutely nothing about Romy And Michele’s High School Reunion but that clip makes me want to see it immediately.
it's not scaremongering if it's an actual threat you dingus. It's a warning. "Mexicans are gonna take yer jerrbs!!!!11" is scaremongering. "Voting for Trump will lead to more of Trump's policies, and Trump's policies, if continued, will lead to more deaths" is a warning.
170K dead from COVID in 5 months. the "suggestion" is real
your tax money makes it all possible
yeah Tom almost had me there, but you brought me back to reality. It is a hell of a hook though.
This deserves more than a 5. It's a truly beautiful, passionate song, with a great melody, a great chorus, and some truly great vocal reaches by Collins. and if you've ever tried to do a cover of it on guitar, you know how deceptively difficult and intricate the parts are, and the way they develop over the course of the song is brilliant.