I don't care that it's basically just Pumped Up Kicks with a better singer. I don't care that I can't tell if this is Karen O sounding like PJ Harvey or Karen O sounding like PJ Harvey sounding like Karen O. I don't care that it sounds like Danger Mouse sounding like Danger Mouse. I am interested in the fact that this doesn't sound cool enough to be important in the cool places, while also not sounding commercial enough to be important in the commercial places, but I'm not that interested.
Back when CD Box Sets performed an essential function, Rhino unleashed a flurry of genre-based box sets in R&B, Alt-Rock, Brit-bop, Nuggets, Children of Nuggets, 80's, 90's, etc. But probably the best, or at least definitely my favorite is the Girl Group compilation. This song reminds me of that. With Karen O singing all the parts herself, a nice 21st century update. It's all the Karen O's that make the song, Every Karen O, the "doo-doo-doo" background singer, the frontwoman, the "hey-ah-hey" background singers, the "I'm a woman I'm a woman" background singers, all sing the absolute shit out of this song. "Woman" needs to be heard on the radio, unexpectedly in public, to inflict its potential damage. On the right radio, at the right time, it could change someone's life.
Not mine. Probably not yours. But there are people out there who need this, dental assistants and elementary school secretaries, cheerleaders and undergrads. And it breaks my heart to think this probably won't reach them. But then the systems through which music is filtered through and delivered to music listeners has been broken for quite some time now. That's true regardless of your genre, regardless of your pre-conceived sensibilities.
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