Shut Up, Dude: This Week’s Best Comments

"Call Me Maybe", in addition to being one of the catchiest songs ever(!), reigned on the Hot 100 during a highly memorable portion of my life. Beginning in July 2012, I was located at the US Embassy in Baghdad for four months, working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. My role was to help the Iraqi government set up a national geospatial capability, one that it could eventually manage and maintain self-sufficiently.

I met and worked with so many amazing people during this time, and quickly developed a deep admiration for the people of Iraq. So many challenges (and yes, divisions), but such a resolute spirit.

My location and work schedule made keeping up with new music and the charts difficult, but with the miracle of the internet, I was able to listen to some new music and keep up with things a little bit. Here's a favorite song of mine that I associate most strongly with that time, one which I listened to as often as I could:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghb6eDopW8I

When Trent Reznor finally had that a-ha! moment recently with pop music (I believe it was his daughter's love for Dua Lipa's "Levitating" that led to this for him), I recognized myself in him. I have had phases with many different music genres, but always took it as an article of faith that anything that was mainstream popular was, by definition, absolute garbage. This column and this awesome comment section opened my eyes to a great extent about everything I was missing out on. Subsequently, I've become a huge Carly Rae fan on the basis of her last two albums (The Loneliest Time and The Loveliest Time, both highly recommended!) And I've been looking forward to this day.

So is "Call Me Maybe" a 10? Do you even have to ask??? It is a 10 on a bad day and an 11 all other days. Like "Levitating," it is pretty much the perfect pop song. And like Trent Reznor, once I let pop music in, I crumbled to its power.

But if all you know about Carly Rae Jepson is this song and maybe "I Really Like You," then you are truly missing out. You need to explore her other music -- dare I say if she compiled a greatest hits album, it would go toe-to-toe with the likes of Madonna's The Immaculate Collection. I haven't read ahead, but if nobody else has posted "Run Away with Me," here it is. She's got a LOT of bangers on this level. "Call Me Maybe" is the teaser of the magic to come, not the end product.

https://youtu.be/TeccAtqd5K8?si=HPm8MKfVlLu2mBNU

What can I say? I’m a white pop gay with a soft spot for Canadians. Of course this is an incredible, all-time, 12/10 song for me. Those zoomy synth strings are like heroin made out of candy. I just adore that CJR came up with a way to keep doing her thing. I totally agree that Cut to the Feeling is a 10, and I also really like Party for One.

Quick Carly story: In late 2012, there was scuttlebutt that Pop-Tarts was going to hold a free concert at Northerly Island on the lake downtown. The hipster bear crowd that I was hanging out with at the time thought it would be hilarious to sign up and see Carly for free. Most of them chickened out at the last minute, because they accurately predicted that it would be 90% 10 year olds, 8% bored parents, and 2% giant gay dudes. But my boyfriend at the time and I went and had a fantastic time. The opener was Austin Mahone, a non-union Bieber equivalent, but Carly came on, and she won over the crowd INSTANTLY. She only had her one album of material, but she couldn’t have been more charming or grateful for her sudden good fortune. One of my most fun concert experiences ever, and the Kellogg’s people were shoving stacks of S’More flavored Pop-Tarts into our arms as we left. (We ended giving most of them away because they were so sweet. )

But I believe that Carly Rae is here to only do good here on Earth. Long may she sing!

During the weeks of July 21st through August 18th, at number one in South Korea was Psy’s “Gangnam Style.” One of the biggest international hits of all time (5 billion and counting), this surely would’ve hit number one on the Hot 100 if Billboard incorporated counting streaming numbers six months earlier than it did. Psy had been a rapper for years in South Korea before making this hit, often regarded as more of an offbeat, edgy artist than a serious hit maker. His songs earned him controversy and actual fines for being too inappropriate but it made people were well aware of him.

Psy’s cavalier style informs “Gangnam Style,” which is all about appearing trendy and hip as if they’re from the Gangnam region of Seoul (think Beverly Hills). The video playfully undercuts this with the iconic, silly horse dance and Psy having wind and foam blown his way. It’s as light and fun as “Call Me Maybe,” and as insidiously catchy too. Sometimes I randomly hear in my head “oh oh oh sexy ladyyy.” A modern classic, Psy will be back: https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0?feature=shared

And Flying Up The Modern Rock Charts On Its Way To Peaking at No.19… it’s The Cure and “Pictures Of You”, a song that probably would have – and certainly should have – charted far higher if not for the fact that it’s over seven minutes long. This video version is edited, but it’s still more than five minutes.

“Pictures Of You” is probably the ultimate “Disintegration” track. Glummer than glum guitar chimes, swelling waves of misery, an epic soundscape of sadness, over the top of which Robert mumbles sweet endearments, goes “do do do”, before screaming at the make believe and screaming at the sky, like the banshee he temporarily was.

“Pictures Of You” everything that you could possibly want in a Cure song and it’s a 10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmFFTkjs-O0

Ten.

Absolute 10.

No brainer 10.

Perfect 10.

Joyous 10.

One of the greatest pop songs EVAH 10.

Mic drop 10.

Goodnight Gracie 10.

Elvis Has Left the Building Because he knows this song is Perfection 10.

Shall I go on???😀

Not a blemish on this song anywhere.Thank God it got made, and it worked out so brilliantly.The string accents are just the best, but every time I listen to this song there's new aural goodies to discover.It's just so damn friggin happy sounding.I spent that summer constantly changing radio stations so I could find it getting played elsewhere on the dial and satiate my addiction to the song for another few minutes.

Thank you Carly Rae Jepsen et al for this perfect piece of pop perfection.I'm sooooo glad it exists!

Long time reader/lurker, first time commenter.

It was 100% the song of the summer, and I remember hearing it all the time in my retail store in Australia, with the vibe picking up instantly when it came on.

I also remember a road trip I went on at the time where my then bf and another friend claimed to have never heard Call Me maybe. They were both in bands and didnt really pay much attention to the mainstream, and didn't have to work a job like mine that required listening to mainstream radio all the time, but still, this song was EVERYWHERE. I then had to sing it for them on the hour, every hour during our car trip, and I can tell you, my voice is certainly not as delightful as Carly Rae's.

Absolutely 10/10.

Dude is a triple threat. He’s not funny, he’s unpleasant, and you know he smell crazy.

We wish for less Grimes content and one finger on the monkey paw closes...

"Everything just works".In 3 words, Tom sums up why this is a 10 for me and why I've waited for years for him to get to this song so I could declare it as one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded in history.When this came out, I was 3 decades removed from being in the demographic of people that should have been loving this song but I don't care.I never have.And no, it's not a guilty pleasure.It's just a perfect pop song.

From the first time I heard it, I instantly was drawn in by the strings.That was just the beginning.It has been grabbing me and pulling me in ever since. The way the song builds both lyrically and sonically sends me into a musical high to this day.Only a handful of #1s are above it on my list of greatest ever and I'm not sure what coming up would be able to knock it down a peg.Before you came in to my life, I missed you so bad, indeed.