Top 50 2011: Pigeon

I grew up on oldies, and there’s always been something about 50s/60s pop that I keep coming back to, whether it’s the classics or modern takes on the same principles.  Tennis is a group that fits in the latter category – Patrick and Alaina perfectly capture this sort of surf-rock simplicity over the entirety of their debut, Cape Dory.  I had issues with the album, but this song never really left the “Recently Played” playlist on my iPod until the last few months of the year.  Impressive for a song that came out in January (given the volume of material I listen to).

As for the album itself, it’s 10 tracks of similar surf-rock inspired pop.  Clocking it at a relatively brief 33 minutes, the album still manages to feel long somehow, which is its only drawback.  It’s an album I like to spend time with (especially tracks like Marathon), but I can’t do it all in one sitting.

This song also has the distinction of having the weirdest musical reference point I think I’ve encountered this year.  When I first heard it, what came to mind wasn’t Phil Spector’s “Be My Baby” or other wall of sound touchtones, but a song from a shitty movie I watched because of MST3k.  In a bid to be the first (and perhaps the only) zombie musical, Ray Dennis Steckler’s The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies included songs supposedly performed as part of a midway sideshow.  One of the songs, “It Only Hurts”, sounds like this song, in a way.  I’ve embedded a copy of the Google Video on the next page.

Tomorrow: I keep telling myself to stop.

song from 40:08 – 42:18