Song of the Day #5,378: ‘Big Time Rush’ – Big Time Rush

This is the first Big Time Rush song featured on the blog in more than a decade. The previous entry also came on a Random Weekend.

At the time I praised the Nickelodeon TV show, which was a big hit with my kids (then 10 and 7). The show lasted only a few years but my now 20 and 17 year old daughters are still suckers for the band in a sweetly nostalgic way.

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Song of the Day #5,377: ‘Baby Seat’ – Barenaked Ladies

‘Baby Seat’ is a track from Barenaked Ladies’ 2000 album Maroon, their fifth record and the last to go platinum. The band had a pretty rapid decline following five straight hits between ’92 and ’00. They were a 90s act, through and through.

‘Baby Seat’ has an interesting lyric. The first verse and chorus seem to be about a woman who abandoned her child and hoped to sail through life without taking responsibility. Pretty straightforward.

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Song of the Day #5,376: ‘The Next Best American Record’ – Lana Del Rey

Today’s post wraps up my deep dive on Lana Del Rey but I hope my readers are ready for more. Next week I’m moving on to her newest release, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, which dropped today.

For both logistical reasons and because I’m very excited about the album, I will be giving the record the ‘full tracklist’ treatment, dissecting its songs in order on the blog over the next few weeks.

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Song of the Day #5,375: ‘Violets for Roses’ – Lana Del Rey

After a steady diet of an album every other year, Lana Del Rey surprised everyone by dropping a second record just six months after Chemtrails over the Country Club. The pair of folk rock releases drew a neat parallel to Taylor Swift’s folklore/evermore duo the previous year.

Blue Bannisters came out in October of 2021 with very little fanfare and almost no promotion by Del Rey herself. She says she designed the album as a response to criticism aimed at her over the years, and as a glimpse at the troubled human being behind the pop star.

The result is the most gorgeous therapy session you’ll ever hear.

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Song of the Day #5,374: ‘Yosemite’ – Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey had a tough act to follow after the orgasmic reception to Norman Fucking Rockwell and she responded to the challenge by delivering her quietest and most personal record yet. 2021’s Chemtrails Over the Country Club strips away any hints of modern pop present in its predecessor and doubles down on the atmospheric folk.

Some fans decried the continued move away from the trip-hop trappings of her early work, somehow unsatisfied with the bounty of beautiful songs Del Rey was delivering. I’ll take gorgeous acoustic melancholy any day over just about anything else, so this album is right in my sweet spot.

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