#1 Metro Station, "Shake It"

Shake shake
Shake shake
uh-Shake it

I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that Metro Station came up with the chorus for "Shake It," got all excited, showed it to their label, and then were told, "Well, but you still need to write verses, too." One of the many great things about this faux-emo pop-rock-goes-electro single is that you can absolutely hear that, hear that this song was originally nothing more than a chorus, and yet the verses still manage to be more than filler. Of course, it's tough to come off as anything ther than filler when you're surrounded by that chorus, but the verses and bridge do admirably. Even more remarkable is that they manage to be so enjoyable while using every page in the pop-punk lyrical playbook. Quick, with the feeling of constantly pushing forwards towards something, they keep their hooks in a plentiful but repressed supply, never fully giving in to the temptation to let loose...

...until the song hits the chorus. Party anthem perfection of the undeniable sort, "Shake It" is the sort of song everyone knows they're not supposed to like, but ever time it comes on, the girls giggle and lean towards each other to confess how much they really love it and the guys put out their sternest faces so no sign of how much they actually like the song slips out. No other song this year was able to induce such instant exhilaration in me--even just thinking about the catchy chorus was enough to make me want to jump up and start jumping around, hands in the air, to the beat perfectly timed for doing just that. Neither was there any other single this year that I was always willing to play without hesitation, a fact even harder to believe because I've loved "Shake It" since its October 2007 appearance as an iTunes free download. None of its sheen has worn off for me and nothing--not the wannabe hipster but actually incredibly awkward styling of the group, not the "are they trying to be British?!" "accent" the lead singer puts on, not the fact that the group will probably never again produce anything even remotely approaching "Shake It"'s level of brilliance--can take away from the fact that Metro Station, having presumably sold their souls to the devil for the fun and catchiness embedded in "Shake It," managed to capture pop euphoria in a song.

As a matter of house-keeping, while we're on the subject of Metro Station, I'd also like to dig out an old draft of a post about Swedish pop-punk outfit Kid Down's 2008 single "I'll Do (It For You)"--which, as you'll see, I'm not recommending, but I had something to say about.

There are some really really awful lyrics in the verses and song-wise I don't think any element of it comes even close in quality to the chorus. In fact, the song never sounds more promising or more exciting than it does for the first 28 seconds. During the vocodered first fifteen seconds, in fact, you can even imagine Hellogoodbye or some dance project making the song. Those fifteen seconds easily transition into almost fifteen seconds of catchy upbeat pop-rock, more than good enough to get you thinking, "wow, maybe they actually are going to make a fantastic song!" Unfortunately, the first verse is OK but a little bit of a let down and the bits between choruses get progressively worse from there.

In practice, the song ends up playing out like a combination of Hellogoodbye and pre-'80's makeover Good Charlotte, but the pop-punk too often veers into the obnoxious end of pop-punk for me to endorse "I'll Do (It For You)." I'm therefore issuing a request: can someone please rescue those brilliant first 28 seconds (and subsequent choruses) from the rest of this song and use them to make something great? How about giving them to Metro Station and having them come up with some new verse melodies and lyrics? Or maybe even just new lyrics? Are Hellogoodbye looking for a new song opening? Or maybe there's some pop-rock group out there who'd sell the song better with their vocals.

Find it on: Metro Station

I'll get from you what I can take

I somehow ended up listening to (American group) the Bum Out Eternal's "Promises and Hearts" a few minutes ago and was reminded of how much I enjoyed that song during the summer of 2006. Curious as to what ever happened to them, I decided to look them up and, a few clicks later, was surprised to discover that, though it doesn't seem like they've done anything recently (who knows if they're still nominally together or not), there's a connection with a band I wrote about not long ago: Blake, the guy in charge of "sequencing" (I presume writing the music and programming) in the Bum Out Eternal, now does synths for Metro Station. Well, even if we never hear anything from them again, at least we get this little gem of a pop song out of it.

Promises and Hearts--can I get you to promise you'll make it through at least the first verse? OK, well, let me put it this way: if the first 30 seconds, with their adorable synth beats and "ohhh"ing, don't appeal to you at all, you can probably stop there, but if you like those, keep going through the first few lines of the first verse--which could be off-putting and atypical (it's bleepier and less melodic and sweet than the chorus)--before reaching a final conclusion on the song. Still no guarantees you'll like it, but I think the bridge into the chorus is probably the best part.

I don't know of anywhere where you can buy this particular song, but iTunes has an EP by them.

Next up: maybe two Swedish singers.

I saw you dancing and I couldn't get you off my mind

I love it when iTunes' free song(s) of the week is great. And yes, I realize that that's not exactly the most creative way of discovering new songs or artists, but sometimes they're too enjoyable not to share here--Jesse and Joy's "Espacio Sideral" was one such case, and Metro Station's "Shake It" is another. I've not listened to their full album yet, but they've certainly intrigued me enough to consider doing so. Amusingly, one of their key members is Billy Ray Cyrus's son and Miley "Hannah Montana" Cyrus's brother. I imagine he's deliberately trying to separate himself from his father's (and, later on, sister's) music and baggage by going for a supposedly hipper sound, trying to play up the whole underground/alternative thing, but really, ignore that (and ignore their image, which could use some more work)--the following song is just a nice combination of synth-pop and pop-with-strong-guitars. "Seventeen Forever" (which is on their MySpace) is also worth a listen. (Edit: I just found out that the other key member of the band is the brother of another actor who appears on Hannah Montana.)

Shake It--to be honest, if something is catchy, it'll probably win my approval. I also imagine the true hipsters, the market I think they're chasing after, would brush this off as derivative. But that doesn't matter at all--all that matters is how much I want to jump up and down shouting along with the "shake shake, shake shake shake it!" part (preferably surrounded by a bunch of people doing the same thing), or find somewhere playing it at full volume so that I can dance along with it. I have a lot of time for bands mining this vein of sound, this synth pop-with-guitars type of sound, and "Shake It" is a good example of that. They don't sound like what you get American radio, but I'd swap this subgenre of pop-with-guitars for, say, the Panic! at the Disco-type subgenre any day. It's not just that this comes from a family of music I like, though; this is a really good song as well--as I said, catchy, and, though the lyrics are maybe sort of dubious if you think about them, the song is fun and upbeat enough that you really don't do that, except maybe once...and those synths certainly don't hurt its appeal at all either. I love it and can easily see myself being obsessed with it for a while...well, at least for a little bit. Now, let me go listen to how the chorus dissolves into those shouty "shake shake it"s one more time...

To buy Metro Station's debut album Metro Station, go here (physical) or, if you live in the U.S., you can buy it from iTunes.

(By the way, there are five people in this picture, but apparently only four in the band, so I'm guessing it's not the most recent of pictures...if it is actually them.)

Speaking of pop with synthesizers, I've been meaning to mention this for a while now, but I've been in absolute love with Dot Dot Dot's "Take That Away" ever since #1 Hits posted it--definitely go listen to it! It's absolutely fantastic. And they're (shock) American!

Next up: maybe a Swedish singer.