good pop bad pop

today in oxfam the radio was unexpectedly on radio 1. as i settled down at the til at the start of edith bowman's set a pigeon detectives song and 'hey there delilah' sandwiched 'heartbroken' by jodie aysha. this song is weird to me. it's just infiltrating my life. i first heard it at sankeys, because it belongs to the whole 'bassline' scene which is a northern thing and sankeys is big on that. then i started hearing it through open windows and coming out of cars, as if the song was following me around. then it appeared in a mix that someone sent me. then it was finally brought fully into my life as a proper, important song when my friend rosie said to me 'have you heard that song that goes 'heartbroken, without your love'?' and i got excited that it wasnt some kind of ghost and it DID exist so we found it, put it on and had a dance. it was a weird feeling, like this thing that i'd been courting for weeks had finally entered my life and it was so good to have it in my heart where it belongs (the song, not rosie).

it is a beautiful song and i think it's gonna be one of those crazy dance tunes that for some reason goes huge. like you can totally see the logic in why stuff like sandstorm, zombie nation etc are huge, but every now and again a dance tune that doesnt seem that mainstream goes totally off the wall and surprises everyone. and it's truly weird but truly good, its actually quite a disjointed song, randomly skewing off into new arrangements and with mental wobbly melodies. but it's something new and it's gonna get big. i wish it had a better video because videos are where dance music gets big; radio 1 is all about giving indie kids what they want and so its only on stuff like the hits that dance kids get what they want and so a dance song needs both a good hook and video to get massive (like put your hands up for detroit's video appealed to a pretty direct audience and worked a charm). or maybe this song will ride all the way to the top on the simple fact that it is good. which can still happen, you know.

whilst i'm here and i've mentioned it i'd just like to say that 'hey there delilah' is an awfully lazily written song and it's time we put a stop to stuff like this. i'm an open-minded person about music, and always give a song one listen-through without dismissing it before i judge it but this began to try my patience as soon as he rhymed 'new york city' with 'you look so pretty'. i just find music like this sickeningly patronising, like plain white t's are afraid (or more likely unable) to challenge us with a genuinely thought-provoking track that could change our day and so release this muesli. meanwhile beside them 'heartbroken', without even trying, both musically challenges us and also surpasses it as a love song at the same time. true justice!