Topic: Songs you genuinely like but you get the impression you shouldn't

[Jockice]

'Deeper Shade of Blue' by Steps. They were terrible, but that is an absolute banger of a single.

I like 5678. It was downhill all the way after that.

[buzby]

This is more one that shouldn't work but somehow it does,
Heartache Avenue is an absolute banger, dated synths an all.

I'm sure i've agreed with you before over it, but it is an absolute banger. I don't think the Prophet 5 synth brass has dated badly at all, it certainly sounds better than if it had been made a few years later and had a DX7 farting all over it.

[kngen]

Mmmmmmmmmmmm* by the Crash Test Dummies.


_{*insert spaces as needed.}

A rare baritone pop song for starters, and I like the way the piano chimes out at the end of the chorus, and the way the elongated 'beeeeeen theeeeere' hits the chord change at the end of the verse - lots of things that tickle my amygdala. It's pretty shameful, though: stupid-named song by a stupid-named band with terrible post-grunge aesthetics. I'll always remember the look a tour buddy (a musician I have an inordinate amount of respect for) shot me when scrolling through my iPod during a long van journey when he happened upon that one entry. More pitying than accusatory. The memory still burns.

[non capisco]

This is more one that shouldn't work but somehow it does,
Heartache Avenue is an absolute banger, dated synths an all.

The Maisonettes one? I absolutely love that record.

[FerriswheelBueller]

Mmmmmmmmmmmm* by the Crash Test Dummies.


_{*insert spaces as needed.}

A rare baritone pop song for starters, and I like the way the piano chimes out at the end of the chorus, and the way the elongated 'beeeeeen theeeeere' hits the chord change at the end of the verse - lots of things that tickle my amygdala. It's pretty shameful, though: stupid-named song by a stupid-named band with terrible post-grunge aesthetics. I'll always remember the look a tour buddy (a musician I have an inordinate amount of respect for) shot me when scrolling through my iPod during a long van journey when he happened upon that one entry. More pitying than accusatory. The memory still burns.

I also really like that song, but agree it is objectively a bit daft. The lyrics also make little sense.

[Jockice]

The Maisonettes one? I absolutely love that record.

At least one of whom was in City Boy, whose 5705 was great and also did another decent single called The Day The Earth Caught Fire.

[jobotic]

Heartache Avenue is great but again one of those songs that passed me by for years and years.

[Special K]

I genuinely like Male Stripper by Man 2 Man meets Man Parrish.

That's because it's fantastic.

[non capisco]

Yeah, Male Stripper is quite obviously a banger as well. Quintessential electro keyboard riff, gay robot going bonkers, unarguably strong chorus, the line "tips in my G-string make my living". Baffled as to how anyone could deem that one "naff".

[Sebastian Cobb]

There was no middle ground with Man Parrish was there? It was either proper 'this is going on Street Sounds' B-Boy electro or gay as a window.

[Vodka Margarine]

We have Radio 1 on at work sometimes (sigh) but I noticed recently that 'Male Stripper' keyboard riff featuring heavily in something called 'Dished' by Purple Disco Machine. As with all crashingly shit modern pop 're-imaginings', it only served to remind me how immense the source material is.

[Special K]

Work from Home by Fifth Harmony - https://youtu.be/5GL9JoH4Sws

I play it most days. Cracking tune.

[Maurice Yeatman]

Work from Home by Fifth Harmony - https://youtu.be/5GL9JoH4Sws

I play it most days. Cracking tune.

Bloody hell. It's got almost 2 billion views and I'm pretty sure I've never heard it before.

[phantom_power]

Andea True was a US porn star who was stranded in Jamacia and recorded More, More, More to fill the time before she could leave.

Wasn't it more that she couldn't leave the country with the money she had made while out there for some reason so recorded a version of the song to spend the cash? That was then re-recorded when she was back in the US to make the hit we know now

[Jockice]

Shabba Ranks is a cunt, I'm not even a reggae fan and this is of course just the tune of Seasons In The Sun with some growly bits in. But I still love it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCUgLGk8Fas

[Better Midlands]

Wasn't it more that she couldn't leave the country with the money she had made while out there for some reason so recorded a version of the song to spend the cash? That was then re-recorded when she was back in the US to make the hit we know now

I think you're correct, her 2002 obituaries all seem to specify this, I was relying on 90's urban myth knowledge.

[Jockice]

China In Your Hand by T'Pau is great and I don't care what people say.

[jobotic]

China In Your Hand by T'Pau is great and I don't care what people say.

It's not, although it brings back fond memories. Take My Breath Away by Berlin is great though, although I hated it at the time.

[Twed]

China In Your Hand by T'Pau is great and I don't care what people say.

Agreed and also Heart and Soul.

[SteveDave]

"Read My Mind" by the Killers.
"Wetsuit" by the Vaccines.

Those two spring to mind immediately.

[Special K]

"Friday" by Rebecca Black
"Saturday" by Rebecca Black

[gout_pony]

Oh man, a huge percentage of my favourite songs are this.

Big Country - In a Big Country
The Shins - Australia
A-Ha - Take on Me/The Sun Always Shines on Tv
Crowded House - Don't Dream it's Over
Johnny Clegg- Scatterlings of Africa

Basically any kind of cringey, overly sentimental but pseudo-intellectual pop music I can't resist.

Crowded House are a good call for this for me, actually! Very little of the wit and musical inventiveness of Split Endz and yet they hit that REM sweet spot for me.

EDIT: Though obviously no-where near as well as REM themselves, who I love.

[Chollis]

Dario G - Sunchyme

Arguably naff and simplistic. None of this is pioneering or even interesting in concept, but it's all done so tastefully. Just the right amount of everything. There are one or two points in the album version where they mix throw in some syncopation with the piano (which is just the right timbre) and it's really good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L32jaCsFeb8

Fucking hell, you've made my day with that. I remember bouncing around my bedroom around 9 years old thinking that was as good as music could possibly get. First single I ever bought I think. Completely forgot it existed - thank you!

[Lordofthefiles]

Boys, Boys, Boys - Sabrina.

I'll defend everything about it to the hilt!!

[Maurice Yeatman]

The bazonkas should be further back in the mix.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Billy Joel - Piano Man.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

A big hit from ‘89 here - I Beg Your Pardon by Kon Kan

Who can resist New Order-ish verses, a Barney Sumner soundalike, a cheesy Italo-Disco keyboard riff and a stuttering country and western sample? Sound of the summer.

https://youtu.be/_YO_24AIguU

[hummingofevil]

I genuinely like Male Stripper by Man 2 Man meets Man Parrish.

Who doesn’t? I’ve got the picture disk and it get played weekly.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Billy Joel - Piano Man.

I prefer ‘Tell Her About It’ tbh

[famethrowa]

We Built This City. I think it's a great statement for an influential 60's band to make in the midst of 80's futurism. Sure, there are some rum lines about the mamba etc, and there wasn't much of the 60's band left, but there's a whacking great DX7 bassline and the radio announcer "city by the bay" part is quite cinematic. Everyone hates it, and the band did their best to shat all over it, but I think it's not too bad.