Thrill 4-3: Sucker {The Power of Orange Knickers}

I can think of all sorts of reasons to take an active dislike to this song, but I can't bring myself to do it. It would be like kicking a cute little puppy.

I sit there listening to all the things that seem wrong. Here are a few of them:

1. THAT word. In the title. When I hear it sung, all sorts of negative thoughts go through my head. It seems to be a terribly English word for a start, ie peculiar to the British Isles. It's also the kind of word that English schoolboys would snigger at. I can imagine it being in a comedy song (it would be perfect in Tori's cover of "That's What I Like Mick", if it isn't actually in there already), but seems jarring in a song that doesn't appear to be making fun of itself. Finally, it's a dreadfully harsh word to sing. Tori manages to be gentle with it once or twice, but that hard 'ck' sound stands out a lot, especially when Damien Rice digs into it. Which brings me to...

2. This song "features" Damien Rice. There was earlier talk describing it as a duet with him, but thankfully the album itself reverts to him being a feature. A song where one singer doubles the other at the octave whenever the opportunity arises doesn't constitute a duet. Nevertheless it bugs me that Damien is getting more credit for his contribution than Trent Reznor did for "Past the Mission" (a contribution that in my opinion was a lot more atmospheric), and I can only conclude that savvy marketing has a lot to do with it. Having said that, lucky old Damien even gets to double himself at the octave in one portion, plus he's pushed forward in the mix ahead of Tori. Despite all the effort, a part of my brain reacts by saying "what was the point of all that"?

3. The musical substance of this song is not only short, but it feels short. There are some great songs with very few bars of distinct music in them that somehow get away with it and don't draw attention to the fact. Here, the melody repeats itself one note higher and does some small flourishes for variety... and I'm acutely aware of exactly what's happening.

4. The arrangement is bland. It actually starts rather well, it's not easy to get the sense of lightness and air that's achieved in the first part. But then the drums kick in more earnestly, and everything sounds flatter and there's nothing unusual to catch the ear.

And yet...

The whole thing keeps sounding so, um, catchy (*embarrassed cough*) that it's getting buried in my brain. Over the last week I've discovered several times that I'm humming the tune inside the head ("humming" because usually the words aren't there, who needs them when there are several sets of words to the one fragment of melody) and it isn't easy to stop, because the whole thing is so simple and easy to grasp. I have this horrible feeling that Tori could be in the middle of a concert and shout "c'mon, EVERYBODY!" and before they knew what was happening a lot of self-respecting people would find themselves singing along to this piece of bubblegum.

I don't normally listen to Tori Amos for this kind of experience. Nevertheless it is kind of gratifying to know that she's capable of delivering it.