✦ 00s Indie Pop ✦ & ✖ 00s Indie Rock ✖ Rates | ✖ Indie Rock Rate Finale! ✖

soratami

soratami

✦

#19
#49

A-Camp-Stronger-Than-Jesus.png


Stronger Than Jesus
A Camp
7.577
10 @Phonetics Girl | 9.5 @berserkboi
3 @DJHazey | 6 (2) @fatyoshi @Oleander
Host's score: 8

Following a song that with three 11s and four 10s, we have one with just a single 10, but which, @DJHazey aside, everyone gave a 6+ score to, so a mostly very consistently scored song.

A Camp is the side project of The Cardigans' lead singer Nina Persson, and has released two albums, a self-titled debut in 2001, inbetween the band's smash album Gran Turismo and their most stripped back project, Long Gone Before Daylight, and the second, Colonia, which Stronger Than Jesus is taken from, in 2009, four years after after the most recent The Cardigans album. A Camp's debut single I Can Buy You, embedded below, would have also been a great fit for the rate, the main reason I went with Stronger Than Jesus instead was that the former isn't available on Spotify (at least for me). Also embedded below is the equally rate-friendly You're The Storm, the lead single from Long Gone Before Daylight, which would definitely have been the song chosen had I included The Cardigans instead of A Camp. Stronger Than Jesus is a lovely song, but I wouldn't quite call it a standout, so I was actually somewhat surprised it didn't get eliminated a bit earlier, but I suppose it's one of those songs nearly everyone liked even if it wasn't anyone's (aside from @Phonetics Girl's) favourite.

@DJHazey (3) “Obviously the lyric is literally saying love is stronger/better/more important than Jesus/religion/faith but I can't help but be annoyed by the chorus more than any Christian pop I do listen to, who are great at hiding the obvious religious meaning. It’s kind of hokey sounding and awfully repetitive”

@Maki (7.75) “There's something very standard and basic about this one, but it's very pleasant. And I'm still not sure whether the lyrics are satirical or not.” I'm not sure if satirical is the right word, but the lyrics are definitely intentionally over the top.

@DominoDancing (8) “This is a perfectly good song that simply doesn't reach the same heights as The Cardigans' work or even some earlier A Camp material (I prefer the breeziness of I Can Buy You).”

@daninternational (9) “The perfect opener to this contest, instantly transports me back to the period when Scandi-indie dominated my playlists. A gentle vibe with Life on Mars feelings”

@Filippa (9) “I like this better than most of Nina‘s work with The Cardigans. Very catchy, a little old fashioned gem and I like the lyrics.”

@berserkboi (9.5) “A very compelling song!”







✦​
 
elektroxx

elektroxx

he / him
soratami said:
Oops. I'll definitely give it a listen soon. But I think I want to play the game first as I imagine it probably works better in that context? Anyway, I wonder if this counts as a typical studio album for them and that's what they've been doing these last few months/years, or if they've been working on a regular studio album as well.
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Despite being aware that there was a video game that shared the name of the album, I didn't realize that the album served as the soundtrack to the game, tbh.

I do think that they have treated it like a proper studio album. Every track has a lyric video and they've also uploaded two acoustic performances of tracks from the album.
 
soratami

soratami

Commentary Guessing Game
Stronger Than Jesus
​
@Phonetics Girl:
5. “[REDACTED] has worked on so many awesome songs, how is this so boring? Sure, some of the chord changes are of the beaten path, but otherwise this doesn't really offer me a lot.”

@slaybellz:
7. “I mean this is fine and is by far not the worst song here, it's just not that much more interesting than anything else on a mid-00s Starbucks compilation.”

Another song that wasn't in the commentary game, oh well (the next two are!). But at least we have someone pick a negative commentary for a song they gave a 10 too again dd. Though I guess it's just playing smart.

@Phonetics Girl 2
@Maki 1 (+1)
@slaybellz 1
@klow 1
@Untouchable Ace 1
@MilesAngel 1
@Attis 0 (+1)
@daninternational 0
 
Maki

Maki

I'm surprised about the love "Big Jet Plane" got, since it doesn't sound like something this forum would stan, but what do I know. It remains a very nice song.

soratami said:
@Maki (7.75) “There's something very standard and basic about this one, but it's very pleasant. And I'm still not sure whether the lyrics are satirical or not.” I'm not sure if satirical is the right word, but the lyrics are definitely intentionally over the top.
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Yeah, that should be it. I should've just read the band's name once again ddd
 
soratami

soratami

✖

#30
#48

Ok-Go-Here-It-Goes-Again.png


Here It Goes Again
OK Go
7.587
10 @elektroxx | 9.75 @Untouchable Ace
4 @Aester | 5 (2) @Epic Chocolat @klow
Host's score: 9

Beating Stronger Than Jesus by just .25 points, we have another song to have received both only a single 10 and a single negative score.

OK Go are a band from Chicago who have released four albums between 2002 and 2014, with Here It Goes Again being taken from their sophomore album Oh No, which came out in 2005. As practically all the commentary mentions, the song's biggest claim to fame is its iconic treadmill choreography music video, which I imagine everyone here must have probably watched at least once. Although OK Go have had other moderately successful songs (such as their debut single Get Over It and the gimmick music video-having I Won't Let You Down, taken from their fourth album, both embedded below), I feel like they're probably the act in the indie rock rate that suffer the most from having one song overshadow everything else they have done, due to the Here It Goes Again video being so inescapable.

@DominoDancing (6.5) “Good on them for successfully distracting everyone from the song's mediocrity with that video.”

@Sprockrooster (7) “Let me up my score a bit for that memorable music video, cause based on the song this is more an OK No.”

@Ana Raquel (7.5) “There is even a beatmap for this song on DDR X dddddd I rarely played it though”

@daninternational (8.5) “I watched this video a lot back in the day, and they create excellent videos, but the song itself isn't as strong. Robin Bengtsson wishes though”

@berserkboi (8.5) “I remember all the press the Music Video got taking away from the song but it is a bop!”

@Attis (8.5) “It's an OK pop punk song”

@slaybellz (8.5) “Wasn't the music video for this like the most watched video on youtube at the time or the first one to reach 1m views?? I don't know something like that. Simpler times.”

@DJHazey (9.5) “The video was such a moment in MTV history. At the time, I wasn't really into bands like this, so I refused to stan. Now, being more open-minded, I am ready to embrace it for the bop it is.”

@elektroxx (10) “I think that we tend to collectively forget about what a bop this is because its music video was perhaps the first viral music video.”







✖​
 
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Aester

Aester

She/Her
elektroxx said:
Based on my luck, it'll be my eleven.
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I was just thinking the same thing! Given that we had the same 11 in the Indie Pop section, maybe we'll have the same eliminated Indie Rock 11.

I actually didn't know "Big Jet Plane" until it was included in the 2010s Ultimate Song Justice contest last year (I'm pretty sure it was @berserkboi and @soratami who voted for it, so thank you for introducing it to me). I am immunosuppressed through medicine I take to treat an autoimmune disease, which means from March 2020 until I was fully vaccinated in May 2021, I truly did not go anywhere or see anyone in person except for my partner, who lives with me. And he didn't really see anyone either, except a few times outside, far away, because we were so worried about what would happen if I caught COVID. Beyond that, we live in Minneapolis, my brother lives in Washington DC, and my parents live in Kenosha, Wisconsin, three cities that had serious civil unrest last year. I couldn't see my family and they couldn't see me, but we could turn on the television and watch each other's cities descend into fire and violence.

So seeing the video for "Big Jet Plane," in which a woman stuck in a depressing space imagines herself escaping into some sunny, tropical-looking location with the wind flowing through her hair really affected me. And even now, when things are much better but still not great, I feel a real wistfulness when I listen to the song and imagine the kind of romantic escape it evokes. Maybe it sounds crazy to put so much on a song with such simple lyrics, but it really gives me all that.
 
soratami

soratami

Aester said:
I was just thinking the same thing! Given that we had the same 11 in the Indie Pop section, maybe we'll have the same eliminated Indie Rock 11.

I actually didn't know "Big Jet Plane" until it was included in the 2010s Ultimate Song Justice contest last year (I'm pretty sure it was @berserkboi and @soratami who voted for it, so thank you for introducing it to me). I am immunosuppressed through medicine I take to treat an autoimmune disease, which means from March 2020 until I was fully vaccinated in May 2021, I truly did not go anywhere or see anyone in person except for my partner, who lives with me. And he didn't really see anyone either, except a few times outside, far away, because we were so worried about what would happen if I caught COVID. Beyond that, we live in Minneapolis, my brother lives in Washington DC, and my parents live in Kenosha, Wisconsin, three cities that had serious civil unrest last year. I couldn't see my family and they couldn't see me, but we could turn on the television and watch each other's cities descend into fire and violence.

So seeing the video for "Big Jet Plane," in which a woman stuck in a depressing space imagines herself escaping into some sunny, tropical-looking location with the wind flowing through her hair really affected me. And even now, when things are much better but still not great, I feel a real wistfulness when I listen to the song and imagine the kind of romantic escape it evokes. Maybe it sounds crazy to put so much on a song with such simple lyrics, but it really gives me all that.
Click to expand...

The Big Jet Plane video is really beautiful, it's a great example of a music video complementing a song perfectly, both in terms of lyrics and vibe. The song's already a 10 by itself to me, but the music video elevates it even further.
 
daninternational

daninternational

he/him
Aester said:
I was just thinking the same thing! Given that we had the same 11 in the Indie Pop section, maybe we'll have the same eliminated Indie Rock 11.

I actually didn't know "Big Jet Plane" until it was included in the 2010s Ultimate Song Justice contest last year (I'm pretty sure it was @berserkboi and @soratami who voted for it, so thank you for introducing it to me). I am immunosuppressed through medicine I take to treat an autoimmune disease, which means from March 2020 until I was fully vaccinated in May 2021, I truly did not go anywhere or see anyone in person except for my partner, who lives with me. And he didn't really see anyone either, except a few times outside, far away, because we were so worried about what would happen if I caught COVID. Beyond that, we live in Minneapolis, my brother lives in Washington DC, and my parents live in Kenosha, Wisconsin, three cities that had serious civil unrest last year. I couldn't see my family and they couldn't see me, but we could turn on the television and watch each other's cities descend into fire and violence.

So seeing the video for "Big Jet Plane," in which a woman stuck in a depressing space imagines herself escaping into some sunny, tropical-looking location with the wind flowing through her hair really affected me. And even now, when things are much better but still not great, I feel a real wistfulness when I listen to the song and imagine the kind of romantic escape it evokes. Maybe it sounds crazy to put so much on a song with such simple lyrics, but it really gives me all that.
Click to expand...

Lovely to read the genuine emotions behind your 11!

and almost more importantly I finally got a point thx @berserkboi for being so predictable ddd
 
DJHazey

DJHazey

he/him
If I remember correctly, when I first watched MTV hyping up OK Go, by telling us of how amazing this music video was for "Here It Goes Again", I think if memory serves me correctly MTV then brought up this upstart new band with an orange-haired singer named Hayley Williams. In other words, I swear right after doing a small interview/promo piece on OK Go, Paramore's was next and that's how I discovered them so it was ultimately a great day for me, even if it wasn't too fussed about OK Go at the time. So all worked out well anyway. Yes, life was simpler back then. Back when MusicTeleVision was, you know, actually promoting new music.
 
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