I fancy myself to have an "ear" for music. I can usually listen to a song a time or two and make a prediction
about it's "hit potential". A few years ago, I won $25,000 dollars in a year long contest picking radio hits,
so I think I have some street cred here. And, that is precisely why a catchy new song has been "tasking" me.
PUMPED UP KICKS by Foster The People is exploding up the charts, selling like crazy, getting requested at all the
cool kid stations and yet I hate it! All the cool kids (in their pumped up kicks) have been trying to tell me what
a great song it is.
My wife called me the other day and said "what song is this.....?" and then proceeded to hold her phone up to the radio.
My morning show partner LOVES IT, the ladies at the bank are crazy about it. So, I was puzzled...why do I dislike this song?
Time to investigate. Time listen..and listen again. First, the affected, voice box singing of the lyrics make it almost impossible to understand
what they are saying, then the "hook" comes around. The whistling, the echoy backslap production...starts to pull me into it's spell.
But wait, the lyrics. I begin to catch bits and pieces of the lyrics....
THE CHORUS:
"All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet"
Wait, What.."faster than my bullet"...let's look further into this..first verse?
"Robert's got a quick hand
He'll look around the room
He won't tell you his plan
He's got a rolled cigarette hanging out his mouth
He's a cowboy kid
Yeah, he found a six-shooter gun
In his dad's closet hidden in a box of fun things
And I don't even know what
But he's coming for you, yeah, he's coming for you"
EXCUSE ME....he found a gun, and now he's coming for you...crap! But wait, time to REPEAT THE CHORUS TWICE...
Okay it is catchy!
The second verse...same as the first...except he's gunning for daddy!
"Daddy works a long day
He be coming home late, yeah, he's coming home late
And he's bringing me a surprise
Because dinner's in the kitchen and it's packed in ice
I've waited for a long time
Yeah, the slight of my hand is now a quick pull trigger"
Okay - there it is then...I just don't like songs about murdering classmates and parents...
I know, very uncool of me...but hold on, it's now stuck in my head, damn it's catchy...let's repeat that chorus again..twice!
