2022 earworm advent calendar - days 13-21

Well, this isn't going as well as one would hope.

To be honest, we've been struck down as a family by illness in the last week, and I've been working desperately to to clear my plate. 

And now that my plate is clear I have hit a wall. Cue one night of insomnia and now I feel like utter crap.

Here are the sporadic notes from the last week of earworms. 

 

Day 13-15?

David Guetta feat Sia - "Titanium" / Pavement - "Harness Your Hopes" / Roy Orbison - "Oh, Pretty Woman"

"Titanium" is a song that Little Ms. D is learning how to play in her guitar lessons. Pleasant enough but a classic "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"-type song.

I've written about my (initially reluctant) love for Pavement before. And, even though they might be in my top 3 bands of all time, I resisted the lure of this track for ages.

Why?

Because this has become the band's most played song on Spotify. Not because it's particularly good or innovative. But because it fits the algorithm for a particular type of American college guitar pop. So when people are playing something of that ouvre, this is the song that Spotify spits out.

One of my nephews first brought it to my attention as their favourite Pavement songs a couple of years ago. And now Little Ms. D as discovered it through them.

It's a good song. It doesn't rock my world but it's nice to sing along to in the car.

"Oh, Pretty Woman" popped into my head when I was making a sandwich. The filling was Vegan "Chicken".

Make our own version and be plagued by images of Vegan Chicken walking down the street.

 

Day ?

Vampire Weekend - "Holiday"

Another of my daughter's current favourites. From their seldom-played second album, "Contra".

It's a good song.

Are you picking up that our daughter controls the music in the car? One of her current obsessions is the 'Hatful Of Hollow' version of The Smiths' "Still Ill".

One of my all-time favourites, but I wish she wouldn't kill it with repeat plays. 

Yes, we indulge her. But she is awesome.

 

Day ?

Mary Margaret O'Hara - "When You Know Why You're Happy"

 

The only 'proper' album by Mary Margaret O'Hara - 1988s "Miss America" - is one of the best albums ever made. FACT.

Well, it's one of my favourites, anyway.

Mary Margaret is the sister of Catherine O'Hara - y'know, the awesome actress from Beetlejuice, numerous Christopher Guest films, and who played the incredible Moira from Schitt's Creek that you watched during the first lockdown.

This is a frequent earworm but it was perhaps inspired here by the fact that the opening bass line has a slight whiff of Seinfeld, which we've been rewatching recently.

"You move much better than you know, not just some jerky to-and-fro"

 

Day 21 - I know it was because it was this morning!

FULL DISCLOSURE: some of these might have been playing in my insomniac head.

Weezer - "Across The Sea" / The Smiths - "The Headmaster Ritual" / Johnny Cash - "A Thing Called Love"

I'm trying to keep Weezer's icky second album from my daughter. Let's dissect:

1. Oft-referenced obsession with Japanese and half-Japanese female fans (the one in this song is 18)
2. The album is called "Pinkerton" - Pinkerton is the name of the US naval officer who marries 15-year-old Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly. After their marriage he returns to America and Cio-Cio-San waits for his return, having had his child. When Pinkerton eventually comes back with his American wife, it is only because they have decided to raise the child in the US. Pinkerton refuses to see Cio-Cio-San, and she kills herself.

So it make me a little uncomfortable. From Wikipedia:

Pinkerton is named after the character BF Pinkerton from Madama Butterfly, who marries and then abandons a Japanese woman named Butterfly. Calling him an "asshole American sailor similar to a touring rock star", [Weezer songwriter Rivers] Cuomo felt the character was "the perfect symbol for the part of myself that I am trying to come to terms with on this album".

Am I being too hard on it?

"The Headmaster Ritual" is a Smiths song that I haven't managed to play for my daughter. It's obviously a belter.

Oh yes, FYI Little Miss D. is well aware of the fact that Morrissey is now a loser. She's cool with cognitive dissonance.

And absolutely no idea where that Johnny Cash song came from. The mind is a terrible thing to taste, no?