Tynan's Anger

SONGS OF THE DECADE #99

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Sarandon - Kill Twee Pop!  (2008)

Very few moments in the past few years have filled me with such schadenfreude towards my fellow critics than when I discovered this recording, which was not even covered by Pitchfork. All the talk about The Pains of Being Pure at Heart revitalizing Slumberland Records focused on how surprisingly advanced that band sounded for a twee label. Few recognized a band named after a respected but oft-forgotten actress that had a name less suitable than the Pains for typecasting. A year before someone picked up the Pains excellent debut, Sarandon had cleared the air of everything we thought we knew about urban indie pop.

No more simplistic and sparse than Beat Happening, but a lot more of a punch to the gut than most anything Calvin Johnson's followers have ever produced, this song murdered the escapist element of a subculture within a subculture, and served as something of a reality check for a class of individuals lucky enough not to be getting blown up in another continent. Youth in London allows for more polemics than in Brooklyn, and while it can often produce the same kind of navel-gazing, but here we see where the courage in one's convictions only produces good things for the world.

Labels: 2000s, kill twee pop, pop music, sarandon, songs of the decade