worst 5/top 5

["Brian J. Dillard" <dillardb@pilot.msu.edu>]

worst:

5. don't give up--i have never understood why people seem to love this 
plodding, rather pedestrian pop song. kate's vocal is rather nice, and 
i like the lyrical content, but the melody and arrangement bore the 
hell out of me. i made the most amazing kate mix tape back in 1992 and 
still listen to it--and every time i do, i fast-forward through this 
track and curse myself for putting the song at the beginning of a song 
in hopes that by listening to it every time i listened to the tape it 
would eventually grow on me and i'd understand all the fuss. it 
hasn't, and i don't. 

4. violin--i never understand why non-kate fans think she is shrill 
and annoying ... unless i play this track

3. rocket's tail--bloated and pretentious

2. candle in the wind--uninspired interpretation, horribly synthesized 
accompaniment

1. eat the music--pseudo-world music stylings, cheesy lyrics, crap 
melody, video looks like a fruitopia commercial.

best:

5. fullhouse--full of kate's chill-inducing psychological insights, 
but uses a poppier, more accessible production style than other songs 
in the same lyrical vein. if you examine the lyrics, it sounds like it 
could have gone on TD--but it has the TKI/LH-era accessibility to it.

4. and dream of sheep--the essence of quiet surrender. this would make 
a killer death-scene song in a film. it always makes me want to cry.

3. kashka from baghdad--perfect story-song, where an anecdote opens up 
our understanding of a universal condition. it's a song about envy, in 
a way, but you identify with the singer and her desire to experience 
something so powerful. and the melody is to die for.

2. moments of pleasure--this song illustrates why, IMHO, kate is a 
superior songwriter to tori (sorry.....don't flame me!). whereas tori 
takes extremely personal stories and turns them into obscure metaphors 
(i love the melody of not the red baron, but what the fuck is the song 
_about_??? the theme seems to be similar to MoP, but you get that from 
the melody and the delivery, not the lyrics--at least not in as 
concrete a way as you do from MoP), kate uses little anecdotes to 
express a universal--the combination of celebration and sadness we 
feel when remembering the dead. who knows who george the wipe is, or 
why (insert name - i forget the lyric) is dancing down the aisle of a 
plane. it doesn't matter! they're concrete images that move us because 
we have similar little images of _our_ loved ones in our mind.

1. under the ivy--has another pop song ever expressed such longing so 
perfectly and beautifully in so short a time? and using such a 
sensual, yet understated, lyrical conceit? the image of the ivy in 
this song is strong for exactly the same reason the fruit imagery in 
eat the music is garish and horrid--because less is more.

brian dillard
dillardb@pilot.msu.edu