Certain Songs

Certain Songs #2330: The Soft Boys – “Kingdom of Love”

March 30, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Underwater Moonlight
Year: 1980

. . .

All things considered, “Kingdom of Love” is far more representative of the charms of Underwater Moonlight — and Robyn Hitchcock’s music in general — than “I Wanna Destroy You.” A mid-tempo choogle with surreal lyrics and some utterly great guitar playing, “Kingdom of Love” also keeps the quality level way high.

It starts with Robyn’s guitar playing choppy rhythm in one speaker with Kimberley Rew supporting in the other while Matthew Seligman plays some aggressively hooky bass, over which Hitchcock quietly sings.

Certain Songs #2329: The Soft Boys – “I Wanna Destroy You”

March 29, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Underwater Moonlight
Year: 1980

. . .

I wish I could remember exactly how I came to buy Underwater Moonlight. Or for that matter, when it was. I always like to think that it was sometime in the early 80s, but it might not have been until early 1984, and it might have been spurred by the entry in the Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records, which called Underwater Moonlight “one of the new wave’s finest half-dozen albums”

In any event, I bought an import version of it at Tower Records and put on track one side one and was instantly blown away, as “I Wanna Destroy You” is one of the greatest album openers ever.

Certain Songs #2323: Soccer Mommy – “Lucy”

March 23, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Color Theory
Year: 2020

. . .

On Feburary 28, 2020, Soccer Mommy released the follow-up to 2018’s Clean, which was called Color Theory. This was literally the last possible time to release an album for at least the next two years (and, sigh, counting) and not have it affected in some way by the pandemic.

And in a weird way, that wasn’t even true, at least for me: working from home for these last two years (and, yay! counting) has meant that I didn’t have to listen to music through headphones, as I’d had to do for several years prior. (Except for that glorious glorious period at WME when I had my own office overlooking Sunset Blvd in Beverly Hills, which now seems like a weird dream.)

Certain Songs #2322: Soccer Mommy – “Cool”

March 22, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Clean
Year: 2018

. . .

Near the end of the last decade, there was a microtrend of young female artists who got noticed by writing “songs” based around “guitars.” Some of them, like Courtney Barnett, made music under their own names, others like Sophie Allison, recorded under band names, in her case, “Soccer Mommy,” a phrase that is older than she is. But, intentionally or not, ties her back to the 90s, when that was a new term.

That said, the second single from her 2018 breakthrough, Clean, deals with a subject as old as time, open admiration of the cool girl over there. Yeah, that one.

Certain Songs #2321: Snow Patrol – “Spitting Games”

March 21, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Final Straw
Year: 2003

. . .

No, not that Snow Patrol song. That Snow Patrol song is called “Chasing Cars” and is objectively one of the most popular rock songs of the entire 21st century, having made it to #5 on the Billboard charts and into top tens all over the world. Also, it’s been played nearly a billion times on Spotify (OK, closer to 900,000,000 as of this writing, but still), and a couple of years ago was declared the most-played song on U.K. radio in the 21st century.

“Chasing Cars” is perfectly fine, and definitely the answer to the question “what if U2, but with a baritone vocalist?” But the Snow Patrol song I’ve always loved is 2003’s “Spitting Games,” which, uh, reminded me of R.E.M. if their singer were Irish.