I've been enjoying "Meddle" and "Remedy" by Little Boots, two great electropop songs with catchy hooks, perfect for summer. But I didn't really take her seriously as an artist until I heard "Stuck on Repeat." It's pop music on acid, like Kylie Minogue produced by Captain Beefheart, and the unlikeliest hit song of the year. Even its lyrics can be interpreted as a deconstruction of pop music. Whether it's listenable as a song depends on your taste, but I think it's a work that demands attention.


Two Replies to Something Comes Along to Intervene

Jackie Mason | May 30, 2010
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Scott Hardie | March 12, 2017
I was thinking about this song again recently (it came to mind when the similarly meta-textual "Hook" came on), and two more thoughts occur to me:

1) I neglected to mention that Little Boots writes, records, and mixes her own music, usually on her own laptop (with occasional remixes by guest producers). She's the Real Deal that most pop artists aren't. That's impressive, and so is the fact that she was 23 when she made the above songs.

2) This mix of "Stuck on Repeat" deliberately breaks the rules of music, pitch-shifting the melody and making other "mistakes" to sound wrong to the ear. And that's the point, really: The self-aware lyrics are about trying in vain to escape from a loop of the rising-and-falling chord progression of traditional pop music. This song is more clever than I gave it credit for.


Logical Operator

The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »

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69.120.111.23

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All King and No Kubrick Make Jack a Dull Boy

I recently got to talking with friends who liked The Shining, both Stephen King's novel and Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of it, but who were unaware that King has always loathed the movie, despite its reputation as one of the best horror films ever made. It's hard to imagine that a writer doesn't know his own work better than someone interpreting it, but I think this is one of those rare cases where the writer is just too close to the story to get it. Here are three reasons why I think Kubrick's film better understands the material, and is better overall, than King's novel: 1) In King's version, Jack Torrance is a fundamentally decent man who wouldn't hurt a fly, but who is down on his luck and desperate. Go »