Hello everyone I just woke up...
...with a snake tattoo
Oh my god!
#48
Amanda Marshall - Sunday Morning After
18/24
Score: 6.806
My Score: 9.5
Highest: 10 x 3 (
@saviodxl,
@londonrain,
@Music Is Death)
Lowest: 1 x 1 (
@Blond) 1.5 x 1 (
@DJHazey)
Sunday Morning After is the lead single from Amanda's third and final studio album Everybody's Got A Story. It was released in 2001 and charted at #20 in Canada.
As I mentioned during the voting period, the only Amanda Marshall song I was familiar with prior to this rate was the title track of this album. I remember hearing it on the radio all the time but never really knew who sang it. I stumbled upon it again while doing research for this rate, checked out her other songs and then found this gem.
I knew people would either love or hate this song as the chorus is quite obnoxious, but that's what I love about it. It's still got that late 90s sound, which makes sense since she started out in the 90s and was quite successful during that time. She gives me Canadian Sheryl Crow vibes and I wasn't the only one to make some comparisons.
@Sprockrooster (9) - Getting massive Melissa Etheridge vibes. So you bet she is added to ‘need to dive deeper-list’. Especially love her voice and vocal tone. It is very warm. This song is also quite comedic which is actually hard to pull off, but she did it.
@berserkboi (9.5) - This is very Meredith Brooks so I am here for it!
@saviodxl (10) - The best discovery from the Canadians for me. Sounds like Meredith Brooks meets Hanson, which is a good thing of course!
@DJHazey (1.5) - No maam, this style of alternative rock/pop just doesn’t suit me at all. Her voice isn’t palatable at all for me and that opening phone call? The less said the better. Moving on.
@Memoria (4) - Definitely not the best hangover song I've ever heard.
@unnameable (9) - A classic “I drunk too much” song.
#47
Amanda Marshall - Double Agent
17/24
Score: 6.972
My Score: 9
Highest: 11 x 1 (
@yeRleDanaL) 10 x 2 (
@ohnostalgia,
@Guy)
Lowest: 3 x 1 (
@DJHazey) 4 x 2 (
@soratami,
@Blond)
Double Agent was released in 2002 as the 4th single from Everybody's Got A Story, and charted at #19 in Canada.
The song is about being a white-passing biracial woman, and hearing the racist things people say when they think no black people are around. She compares this as being a "double agent" on her mother's side, who is from Trinidad.
You don't usually hear a subject like this in your typical pop-rock song, which is exactly why I wanted to include it in the rate. That and I just think it's a great song personally. Similar to Sunday Morning After, I was not originally familiar with the song but fell in love with it immediately when doing research for this rate.
I suspect the song's subject matter may have gone over some people's heads dd, which is fine, I didn't really expect everyone to google the artists they weren't familiar with. But I just want to make it clear, especially as a black woman myself, I would never include a song in a rate with the n word by someone who shouldn't be saying the n word.
@livefrommelbs (6) - This one's a bit of a snooze.
@Sprockrooster (8) - This starts out at a 9,0, but it drags a bit.
@berserkboi (7) - Some nice moments but I doubt I’ll be taking this with me long term!
@Memoria (5.5) - I tend pay more attention to music first and lyrics later so initially I thought the "double agent" stuff might've been about her dabbling in country music or something. Amanda Marshall is another artist I hadn't heard of before so I didn't know about her mixed race heritage, so after a few listens and actually paying attention to the words it turns out this song was pretty ahead of its time (in terms of the subject content at least). Sadly the music doesn't really compare with most of the other songs in this rate.
@DJHazey (3) - Did she really just drop the n-bomb? I was going to keep it cute and say she’s like the Canadian Jennifer Love Hewitt, at least it’s reminding me of her music for some reason, but she can just keep it altogether. (I get she implying it’s what someone else says but still it won’t pass in 2021).
@yeRleDanaL (11) - I was about to give this song a 1 when I heard the n-word because I thought it was a white woman singing, but when I looked into it I found out Amanda is of a mixed race background, theeeen I understood the song. The creativity of the lyrics is so good and poignant. All about racism behind closed doors when racists believe they are in the company of other white racists, unbeknownst to her dumbass boyfriend(?), she is a "double agent on her mother's side." I like how she is calling out how her appearance leads people to ignore her background ("You see my long blonde hair, and the particular way my lips are shaped"), and that it is being treated as a "deception" that she appears as only white. My faaavorite part of the song is the bridge where she's like "My blood is thicker than any maaaan." Not only does the instrumental shift sound great here, but I like that she is deciding to choose her background that others are ignorant towards over the men she finds herself with who are disregarding it and being racist towards other Black people in her company.