| Genius Next Door performed by Regina Spektor It's all very beautiful, but the power is particularly in the chorus and the instrumental break which follows it. I am pretty sure that Regina has heard a piece of music which I know and like, such is the strong sense of familiarity I get when I hear this short instrumental part...I mean it sounds like something I particularly like and already know. I can't place the piece at the moment, but will amend when I do...it might be something from a jazz/classical crossover albums.
Jeff Lynne does a fantastic job with the production...the sound is spectacular. |
| You Get What you Give performed by New Radicals Probably the only anthemic pop song I will ever choose to listen to. Was drawn to it the first time I heard it, as a piece of chart music at the end of the 1990s.
The first two chords of the verse are audacious, most unusual in pop music, and are what makes the song for me. Without them, or with conventional choices, the song would lose its tension and power. The lyric can be considered cheesy, but it kind of aims high in searching out some kind of universal truth, and it works. When in the right mood, it is even elevating. The last part is lyrically very pathetic, a lame series of insulting name drops. But it probably got the record heard - this was their first single.
I recently read that this song was much admired by U2, and I'm not surprised as I can hear them striving for something like this. But they never get anywhere even slightly close.
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