I have a sampler CD called Short List 2004. It has various tracks from lesser-known artists like Dizzee Rascal, Nellie McKay, Mercury Rev, The Streets (“Dry Your Eyes” might be the saddest song ever) and the like. Also included is the song “Surfing on a Rocket” by the French electro-pop group called Air. I like this song. It is a pretty, spacey tune, much like everything that has ever appeared on an Air album. I think it makes for some nice background music. My wife is ambivalent about it, and usually skips it when it comes up on the CD player or her iTunes.
Last night, while watching Lost we saw a Nissan commercial featuring “Surfing on a Rocket.” It is a typical car commercial: suburban family conquers the jungle and the beach in their mammoth SUV that will almost never leave the pavement. My wife listens for a second and turns to me and says, “I think I like this song more as a commercial.”
I just sort of let that remark hang there for a moment. Apparently without the suburban assault vehicle montage the song is dull, but WITH a Nissan Titan or Behemoth or whatever it’s called, then it’s perfect.
Ensie also has a serious problem the first time she hears a song. No matter how much I know she’ll love the song, the first time she hears it she hates it. I’ll play the first 30 seconds; she’ll shake her head and say “No.” The next time she hears the song it will be marginally better. By the fourth or fifth time she’ll be full on rocking out to it. The most recent examples of this are the Kings of Leon song “The Bucket” and Louis XIV’s T-Rex sound-alike “Finding out True Love is Blind.” She’d shudder and skip the song when she first heard them. Now she’ll have it blasting out the Beetle’s speakers, preferable over and over.
Right now we’re working on The Sights “Baby’s Knocking Me Down”. I give it another week or so.
Posted by Frinklin at May 12, 2005 06:40 PM