POP SONG REVIEW: "Better Now" & "Lucid Dreams"

i hear my little brother listening to these all the time. i sorta get it

Talking Heads reference, always fun d: Also, don't know enough history of this genre of emo-related music, but my ears did perk up when Todd referred to a more angsty, angry phase preceding several years before this more-current depressing phase. I now wonder if there was an older denial-related phase that came first and a bargaining-related phase that's somewhere in the middle of it all. That's right -- I'm wondering if emo-related music is going through a meta-five stages of grief and I wonder if an acceptance-phase will hit us all next d:

Phoenician

Mermaid Man says...

I genuinely feel Welcome To My Life is the worst hit song of all time.

Make more pop song reviews.

Nuts, I've heard of the guy for a while and noticed those songs on the radio and never realized they were different songs! I thought Better Now, Rockstar and Psycho were all the same song! I can tell them apart a little better now. :P But yeah, his tone doesn't change much. And I must be getting old. Thinking they were all the same song is like an old person thing to do. :P Oh crap, I just had a birthday a couple weeks ago too... I should start celebrating them so I can notice them passing faster and faster. *Ugh... * I just got used to writing 36 for my age too. Am i wrong about my age?.. Nope, not this time.

I'm listening to the entire "First Love" album again and it's entirely your fault. Thank you!

I'm going to go listen to Rack City now.

LifeIsStrange

Most hip-hop nowadays is terrible

LifeIsStrange

Will i am is awesome

LifeIsStrange

Emo rap is not a "good thing" when it seems to be the ONLY thing happening right now in rap.

LifeIsStrange

Day and Nite was a lousy song that did not "break new ground"

LifeIsStrange

emo rap sucks ass, sorry Todd.

LifeIsStrange

I kept waiting to see if you were gonna reference Lil Peep and I was so happy when you did. Spotlight is probably my favorite song this year and I'm really hoping to see him make your honorable mentions.

I was really expecting a Cardi B clip to be the punchline to "Let's go back to"

Graeme

"Mother" sounds like a night terror. It certainly has an artistic edge in its strangeness, but since it's on an album as soulfully zen as Synchronicity, it just comes across as a WTF tangent to most.

Jacqueline Sailer

Am I the only one who liked The Police’s “Mother”? Yeah it’s over the top but Andy Summers sounds so vulnerable and unhinged that I think he really sells it.

Dyl

Like I said, there's a better Lucid Dreams out there presently.

Josh Spicer

Paul Anka was 14 or 15 when he wrote "Diana." Kate Bush was 18 when she wrote "Wuthering Heights." Shuggie Otis was 17 when he wrote "Strawberry Letter 23."

Kellie Green

There's an interesting question: what is the best song written by a teenager? The first thing that comes to my mind is "Royals", but that seems like too obvious an answer, I feel like there's something richer and more lasting I'm not thinking of... For that matter, what about the best song written by a senior citizen, somebody who was like seventy, seventy-five? I'd probably go for Levon Helm's "Growin' Trade" for that one.

I can't believe you didn't mention how OVERUSED the "Shape of My Heart" sample is. Nas already sampled it for "The Message" (admittedly not an ideal song to bash...), Monica used it for "Take Him Back", and even Japanese pop legend Utada Hikaru sampled it on "Never Let Go". According to Wikipedia, it's been sampled SEVENTEEN major times, including "Lucid Dreams". It makes "Genius of Love" sound like a creative choice to sample. To me, the "Shape of My Heart" loop is the most Maroon 5 aspect about "Lucid Dreams", even more than the sloppily melodramatic lyrics. If you want to sound moody but have no idea how, just dig up that guitar track and repeat it throughout your song.

Jacqueline Sailer

Out of interest, what is first-tier sting?

You know, the last part of Juice WRLD's name almost sounds like he got inspiration from how Tommy Wiseau says the word "World". And in that case, best way to sum this up is: "I'm fed AHP with this WRLD!"

Tom Carter