POP SONG REVIEW: "death bed (coffee for your head)" by powfu ft. beabadoobee

The side glance and "those aren't names" comment made me laugh out loud.

Stormy K.

This is really insulting to Mac and poor people

Surprised to hear you cover this one! I heard this because a dance-y version of this made it to every spotify playlist my dance instructor plays; the vibe is even weirder with the energetic beats and I think it cuts a lot of the lyrics (probably for the best), but it's heaps nicer to listen to when someone's actually singing. Made me interested enough to google it but I could only find powfu's version :/

Same here! Same situtation (OK, I'm a few years younger and live a little futher east, but makes no difference) and same conclusion. I listened to this song only for the review... on est super branchès, quoi. ;-)

user no. g_{64}

I was trying to figure out why the bit you played on piano sounded familiar, when this song title was completely unknown to me, until you got to tiktok, and I realized this is playing in the tv ads for tiktok.

Jonathan P

First Semisonic since 2001 just dropped. Thoughts.

Kristopher Bluth

"Happy that you here with me, I'm SOARY if I tear up"

Charles Kieser

Hey todd - since you are complaining that 2020 in music is in this strange, holdover pattern from 2019/early 2020, have you thought about covering one of Jason Derulo's new songs? I know you love him! :P The two songs out aren't annoying like his previous ones (I think one of them is quite catchy) but I thought you might want to revisit an old favourite of yours!

ginny

That's really interesting! I wonder what other songs have had this sort of trajectory?

Martin

I strongly doubt The Cinema Snob and Todd will be collaborating any time soon

Isaac Jackson

Awesome, its nice to see you back and rested ... PS. some buggy clip moments like Rapin' Rodney. one. That codec don't give him no respect.

Taylor Abrahamse

tbh i do love new shoes by paolo nutini. wasn't that a vh1 you oughta know? excited for beabadoobee's debut album :)

Saffron C

That was such a brilliant way to close out the video. It got a huge laugh out of me.

At 6:50, that's a freaking cute tiger

gerald oxford

I have to say, this song has had me in tears just by virtue of the chorus. Though that also might just be the immense stress of the pandemic and hearing stories of people dying far from loved ones.

Elena plionis

High five for the Folgers jingle.

Meghan Weber

Todd is back \o/ Another song I've never heard of (but then I'm 44 and live in France so it's not very surprising :D) Anyway Todd makes them worthwhile for the duration of the video ;)

Just gonna say as someone who's loved Beabadoobee for a few years now, her EPs are great, and her debut album is coming out Oct 16th, so I'd HIGHLY recommend it, esp if you enjoy grunge/90s indie throwback.

Todd, you’re cold and I love it

The description of this as "a song that shouldn't be a hiphop song" was so on point. A different delivery or a focus on simplicity would have served this song immensely

This song reminds me of every insipid indie rock hit I had to hear on a loop when I still worked retail, by some smug twerp in his early 20's who fell ass first into success.

SPBurke

God his face is so very beyond punchable. And this song is so saccharine for the subject of death in the year 2020 it's like drinking a bottle of maple syrup at a funeral.

Michael Gaymes

That's almost all of Todd's Pop Song Reviews for me for at *least* the last 3 years. It was almost pure coincidence that this is an exception for me. I don't have TikTok, and any time I flip to the Top 40 stations it's usually either "song I don't recognize but don't enjoy enough to look up" or "song I recognize because it's from 2014 or earlier". Prior to this, I think the last pop song I heard first on the radio and made an effort to track down (as opposed to discovering through Todd or cultural osmosis) was "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore in 2012. The only other recent song I made a point to remember (but still didn't take the 2 minutes of searching for online until now) was "F2020" for what are probably obvious reasons. It's apparently another one of those TikTok meme songs.

Pooga

You're really going to diss ERB like that? I'd say powfu has a lot more in common with Gnash of "I Hate U, I Love U."

William Berk

That dummy song joke had me in stitches.

Blaire Frei

Death Bed, the song that sleeps. Btw, the only editing error I saw was the footage for the "1:03" line was repeated. Unless that was on purpose, otherwise great video as always!

Adam ODonnell

HOORAY another episode of I Am Far Removed From Pop Music and Have Never Heard of This Song Until Now!

waywardlaser

Death Bed broke the Top 30 on the Hot 100 for the first time the week of April 25. Since then, it has: - Dropped out of the Top 30 four different times. For one week (July 25), it fell out of the Top 40 due to Juice WRLD debuting ELEVEN songs on the chart ahead of it. Three times, it returned to the Top 30 a week or two later. The fourth time happened just two weeks ago, and it has not returned yet. UPDATE: It just vanished from the Hot 100 altogether from 39. Usually a song with any staying power will drop out of the Top 40 before falling off, so this is a huuuuge drop for it. Who knows if it will return? - Stayed in the Top 30 for a combined 16 weeks, 9 of those weeks being in the Top 25. - NEVER, not once, cracked the Top 20. I'm truly impressed by a song that can have that kind of staying power and bounce-back power, yet cannot crack such a milestone.

Terrence Kuhns

I've always thought this song was a poor man's Mac Miller song. Welcome back Todd!

Dyl

Definitely give beabadoobe another listen, she's not just twee uke kid -- there's a lot of 90s-alt rock feel to other songs: She Plays Bass and Care are a breath of fresh air in 2020.

Justin V

Hi, Todd. Thank you for saying something nice! The world needs more silver linings right about now.

Eric Mulder

I should revoke my Patreon support for forcing me to watch that DJ interception again

The Hand Of The People

I realized why I hated the song a minute into the video: there's been this dunkin donuts commercial that's been playing a ton during the hockey playoffs which uses the hook.

Michael Furey

Just like you did! ;)

Jon Heiman

Oh, wait, there it is.

Josh Spicer

Huh...this took a turn...

Josh Spicer

Really appreciated the discussion of the sample, and how well it was used - was a nice moment of contrast against your critique that followed.

Georgie Rowe

Good to see you back! Loved the song for the credits, so on point.

Vanessa Picard

PLEASE don't tell me you were serious when you bashed Epic Rap Battles of History. Was Lil Dicky somehow not uncool enough to compare this guy to?

Jacqueline Sailer

between this, most of billie elish's discography and taylor swift's folklore, is pop music simply getting rid of capital letters now?

I don't listen to the radio and I mostly keep out of touch with whatever's popular. Taylor Swift's folklore was a big smash but I care more about Folklore by Big Big Train, a band that does not have Pat Monahan in it.

Since nobody else has mentioned it, I didn't see any glaring errors.

Cassandra Gelvin

Epic Rap Battles of History justified its existence through Eastern vs Western philosophers alone

Jasper Phua

That reminds me, The Streets released a mix tape "None of Us Are Getting Out of This Life Alive." Just sayin...

dryeraser

So good to have Todd back.

GregD

Todd, come on! You missed the opportunity of doing a "Death Bed: The Bed that Eats" joke! You could've had The Cinema Snob do a cameo. He could've been all angry that the bad B movie he review forever ago now has a popular song "based on it" from his perspective, and been all paranoid that the Death Bed's yellow liquid killing flesh dissolving ways would spread through this song hypnotizing people into laying in the Death Bed. It would've been really funny!

JasSpy

I also can’t help but compare it to its spiritual predecessor “i hate u i love u” by gnash ft. olivia o’brien which is a thousands times worse. If I could say one good thing about powfu, it’s that he’s not gnash.

Franco del Rosario

Jesus there needs to be more hits on pop radio than songs about depression anger drugs death and break ups. Which there've always been songs like that, but pop radio went full blown depression era after 2014

Glad you’re back! I agree with everything you said, but I gotta say: I. LOVE. This. Song. Extreme amateurishness and all. Boiling down the horrible ambiguity, complexity and nihilism of death into some warm, fuzzy memories with a loved one is not novel, but it’s so comforting to me. It makes me wish dealing with death was that simple. Although it doesnt make me want to look more into powfu’s other work because I get the writing isn’t great (I should probably check out beebaadoobee’s work though), as a stand alone track, it’s one of my most played songs of 2020.

Franco del Rosario

I could see the intent with the way he’s rapping. He’s trying to be like Mac Miller. Mac would’ve used this sample( or something like it) if he were alive. But, it comes across as bland and boring because of Powfu himself . Mac added personality and likability to his verses. That’s what made him so memorable and its why people adored him. Powfu doesn’t have that. He’s gets overshadowed by the sample and his lyrics have nothing that is memorable. While I admire the idea and the use of the sample , the song’s execution and lyrics are forgettable. What a waste of a good sample.

I have at least two modern pop stations on my Sirius XM presets, but I rarely linger on them, and almost never make a point of tracking down a song I heard there. Too much seems to be the same, forgettable dreck. This song was one of the exceptions... but after tracking it down on YouTube I came to basically the same conclusion. It's really only memorable for the hook, and that came from a completely different song.

Pooga

I think my least favorite part of powfu's rapping is that the beat has a light swing to it but he's, without fail, always just """spitting""" (citation needed) straight 8th notes. He can't even get the -rhythm- of the song right.

Crow

Very surprised this wasn’t WAP, thought you wouldn’t resist adding to ~The Discourse~. Ain’t mad tho, glad you’re back!

Christina Kelley