Album: Elastica
Year: 1995
Oh yeah, “Stutter.” What a refreshing blast of punk rock awesomeness.
Almost two decades after the first punk rock songs, somehow Elastica were able to write and record a song that sounded a ferocious as anything from the late 1970s, while still sounding fresh and new.
Plus it gave a reason for folks who were on the side of Oasis in the great Oasis vs. Blur battles (we really had no real problems in the mid-1990s) a reason to make fun of Damon Albarn of Blur.
So far as I know, nobody wrote a song about Liam Gallagher’s lack of sexual prowess. And “Stutter” is absolutely uncompromising in its lyrical depiction of a lover who is, um, not responding properly.
Is there something you lack,
When I’m flat on my back,
Is there something that I can do for you?
It’s always something you ate,
Or it’s something you hate,
Tell me is it the way that I touch you?
Have you found a new mate,
And is she really great,
Is it just that I’m much too much for you?
Oh, oh oh , ouah oh ah
It was probably the frank — female desire-oriented — lyrical content that kept “Stutter” from hitting the same popularity that other mid-90s punk revival songs by folks like Green Day, The Offspring or even Rancid did.
Sure the dudes in those songs were often pretty much the same loser that Justine Frischman was describing, but they were making fun of themselves for being losers, and not being utterly eviscerated by, gasp!, a woman.
Nevertheless, “Stutter” has aged a lot better than most of the songs that outpaced it back then.
Official video for “Stutter”