We know, we know. This isn’t the indie rock that we usually put in this space, but after listening to Phil Collins again earlier this week, we felt it was high time to give into our guilty pleasures. Julius is extra guilty about the Cutting Crew, by the way. Here’s this week’s list:
1. “Against All Odds,” this song is a stone-cold classic. Somehow, a song drenched in cheese and epic hugeness like this Phil Collins classic became something of a cultural touchstone, and Collins himself – a drummer for one of the weirdest bands of the ’70s, Genesis – a pop star of the MTV era. In the process, he also neutered Genesis, but you can’t win ’em all.
2. Cutting Crew just died in our arms. We were trying to resuscitate them, but for some reason the crew wouldn’t move anymore. The band, strangely enough, is still around, although nobody knows any of their songs besides this one.
3. It’s pretty funny that Todd Rundgren, that oddball of ’70s rock, started out his career sounding like a Carole King wannabe. (OK, he did have a couple of years in the Nazz, but that doesn’t count.) He hasn’t been this remotely good since, not even when he released a song called “I Hate My Frickin’ ISP” back in 2000.
4. Everything about 10cc doesn’t suggest this song. The airy pop of “I’m Not In Love” is kind of an anomaly in the band’s career. They were an art-rock band through and through, with periods (before this hit) of playing bubblegum pop and (after this hit) creating some early music video breakthroughs – both under different names.
5. Hall & Oates is the cheese-pop band of choice for indie rockers, with its pop-drenched Philly soul somehow standing out above the fray from its era. Sure, it’s dated, but the falsettos on “Sara Smile” are less dated than Michael Bolton and Richard Marx.