![]() They're on a mostly sold-out tour right now, scheduled to hit Chicago's Riviera Theatre Wednesday night. From nowhere, they've gone to playing Lollapalooza this summer. "Pumped Up Kicks" has been very, very good to Foster the People, the L.A.-based trio who released it as their first single. I don't for a moment fear that my kids or yours are one ill-considered pop song away from going bad, but I'd just rather not have their environment include a school shooting treated with all the gravity of bubble-gum pop - with whistling! ![]() Or maybe we figure - as I initially did - that it's just pop music, and its ear-candy qualities trump whatever the point of view might be.īut after looking closely at the song's lyrics and listening to it many extra times, I have come to agree that this song is more deserving of a push away than the warm embrace it has mostly received. Maybe naming the song after fancy sneakers instead of the weaponry creates enough emotional distance. ![]() Maybe we're desensitized by the almost absurdly violent first-person-shooter video games so many kids spend their afternoons playing. "All the other kids with the pumped up kicks," says the chorus, "you'd better run, better run, outrun my gun … You'd bettter run, better run, faster than my bullet. "Pumped Up Kicks" is also a song about a kid preparing to shoot his classmates at school. And its bright carousel of a chorus gets in your head and spins merrily around. It is a perky pop ditty with just enough low-fi murkiness to make it hip. "Pumped Up Kicks" has been hailed as the song - or at least a song - of the summer, although it first hit the charts in spring and is peaking now, in fall. ![]() It was when my wife shoved the music player back across the table that I realized I needed to think harder about the tune I was playing for her. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |