Early 2000s Rock Chicks Rate

Two people are losing their 11s tomorrow by the way.

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#53

Fefe Dobson - Bye Bye Boyfriend

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23/24

Score: 6.354

My Score: 9
Highest: 10 x 2 (@ohnostalgia, @Music Is Death)
Lowest: 1 x 1 (@Hurricane Drunk) 3 x 1 (@londonrain) 3.5 x 1 (@berserkboi)

Bye Bye Boyfriend was Fefe's debut single and lead from her self titled album. It was released in 2003 alongside Stupid Little Love Song (another great track on the album) as a B-Side and charted at #8 in Canada.

For those not familiar, Fefe Dobson is a singer/songwriter from Toronto. She signed to Island Def Jam Records as a teen and enjoyed quite a bit of success in Canada with her first album. Unfortunately, her second album was plague by label issues, eventually shelved and she was dropped by her record label. She enjoyed another brief moment of success in the early 2010s with her album, JOY, before disappearing from the public eye once again.

This is what she had to say about the situation in this 2020 Nylon interview:

"So, the first album was the debut album, and then we made Sunday Love and it got shelved because certain people had left the building and there were budget cuts and whatnot. While making Sunday Love, I was dropped and had to go back [to Canada] and try to figure it out. Through that time, before my third album came out, I wrote on that album you see the credits [for] "Don't Let It Go To Your Head," which ultimately Jordin Sparks did and "As A Blonde," where Selena Gomez covered that song on her album. Then, one day I was in Toronto, and I turn on MuchMusic and Miley Cyrus was singing a song called "Start All Over.” I'm watching this video and I'm like, "Why do I know this song?" And it was one of the songs I wrote during the making of Sunday Love. I just knew then that I had to keep going. It was a stressful time not having the label and whatnot. But then I went to LA and got re-signed to Island Def Jam [by] L.A. Reid. Then I made Joy, and Joy was a successful album out in Canada with "Ghost" and "Stuttering," and then Sunday Love came out years later. I don't even know when it was put out because I wasn't told. It was just put out. ... And then during the making of Joy, I wrote a song called "Round and Round" with Kevin Rudolf, and [Selena] did that one as well. "

She's basically responsible for a lot of the next generation of rock chicks' songs, so put some respect on her name!


@livefrommelbs (6) - Yeah, I'm gonna pass on that one.

@berserkboi (3.5) - This started out with me thinking “What A Pretty Tune! Maybe it just needs a stronger vocalist” til that pantomime style delivery started and made me cringe ddd

@Sprockrooster (7.5) - Don’t Let It Go To Your Head was the last standing Fefe track in the zeroes poprock rate. Now it is missing so could this track take it’s place? I actually hope Take Me Away does better than it did in my poprockrate. Let’s redeem it!

@Memoria (6) - The pre-chorus is nice but the rest is lacking decent melodies for me. Bit too much of a nu-metal influence...probably.

@DJHazey (8.25) - Oooo yes, those grinding metal guitars leaning in to chorus always get me right where it counts. Such a dramatic style of entry. Even though the words make the message seem juvenile, Fefe’s badass delivery helps dress it up as something more sinister. Slay \m/







Honestly not that phased to lose this from Fefe so early. As a whole, Joy is definitely her best album.

Kinda sucks how she's been plagued with the same label issues twice. The same thing happened with her planned-fourth album Firebird which was shelved after a couple of (amazing) singles.
 
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#48

Amanda Marshall - Sunday Morning After

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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

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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.





 
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Y'all misunderstood Amanda. I literally had no idea who she was before this rate, but apparently, she recalls many other people dd.
massive Melissa Etheridge vibes
She gives me Canadian Sheryl Crow vibes
This is very Meredith Brooks so I am here for it!
Sounds like Meredith Brooks meets Hanson, which is a good thing of course!
Me and @berserkboi agreeing for once?

And again, poor tem Canada.
 
he/him
I didn't quite get the lyrics but even the same, it's not want I want to hear in a pop song. Great double elimination. The last few should have been out first before we even thought about touching Skye's songs.
 

londonrain

Staff member
The best Alexz Johnson song:



Y'all misunderstood Amanda. I literally had no idea who she was before this rate
Um... she’s been in PJOPS/PJ Retro three times, though?





Honestly, I’m surprised she wasn’t in PJ00s before this round. Sunday Morning After is a bit of a kii but it’s a fun little bop and I’m here for it.

(Also, @slaybellz, I didn’t give Double Agent a 10.)
 
The best Alexz Johnson song:




Um... she’s been in PJOPS/PJ Retro three times, though?





Honestly, I’m surprised she wasn’t in PJ00s before this round. Sunday Morning After is a bit of a kii but it’s a fun little bop and I’m here for it.

(Also, @slaybellz, I didn’t give Double Agent a 10.)

I guess I wasn't around when she was entered in PJOPS/Retro ...or maybe I just didn't like these specific songs nn.
 
He/Him
I still don't get why exactly you dislike it so much anyway. What exactly is it that makes it so much worse than the average pop rock bop in this rate?
Copy/Paste @verandi’s Bad At Love write up here ddd

I’ll put some stuff under spoiler so fans who’d rather not read it don’t have to!

- The lyrics are cringe
- The vocal affectations are some of the worst here!
- The sharp vocals that punctuate a few lines
- The Melody is basic at best
- The message of the song being faux ‘I am so cool you can’t stop thinking about me, but I don’t like it! Woe is me!’
 

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