“Don’t go/ Boys and boys should be together/ Don’t go/ Girls and girls can rule the world.”

I know I’m not exactly the most scathing of music writers, because guess what? This blog is for songs worth the time it takes me to craft a suitably sarcastic offering of devotion. But I’m not even going to attempt to maintain a semblance of criticism today, because holy moly this is giving me such joyful delight. To paraphrase my thought pattern as the video rolled past me: “Oh. My. God. This was released? And I didn’t hear it? This. Was. Released??!!”

‘Fefe?’ I hear you cry. ‘But her debut was direly inconsequential eyeliner rock!’ I know. Hence the shocking awe at such a polished and damn good record. As if echoing our lacklustre frustration, some kind soul must have taken the little poppet aside for a wee chat. ‘Sweetie,’ they so tactfully began, “Life has moved on. Avril can keep churning out those same alienation anthems, but you’ve Lala’s and Kelly’s to contend with now. And by god they’re a thousand times better than this crap you’ve pouting over.”*

So she went and took the opening four bars of ‘Since U Been Gone’ and listened to some Cyndi Lauper, and then instead of attempting a new 80s update in the way Girls Aloud and Gwen have, she didn’t move it along one single damn year. Oh no. This is the pure, unadulterated stuff. Think painfully hypnotic chorus chant, simple bass pound and mindless squiggles. I don’t give a damn about the senseless verses because its all so purely repetitive in the way only the best songs can get away with. Hell, I’ve had the thing on repeat play for an hour and I’m still metaphorically leaping from my computer chair in joy.

There’s ‘ba ba baba’s and ‘shalala shalalala! The craziest drawled ‘On the cover of a MAG-UH-ZIN-E’ you’ve ever heard! And then it hits the breakdown with a capella chanting layers until boys and girls can rule the world with whoever they damn well feel like!

Stop. Go!



*(said kind soul obviously time traveled back to July)