If you clicked into this article thinking that I am trying to sell you (yet another) EDM-laden appreciation playlist then I am going to “disappoint” you (depending on which camp you’re at). I would like to think that my taste in music is in the broad range — I really do listen to many genres even though I’m always professing EDM — but there are some songs out there with really confusing lyrics that everyone seems to enjoy and I simply can’t because it doesn’t make sense.
Hence, I am curating this “appreciation” playlist of the recent Top 40s to hammer those ideals into me. Hammering works because it takes time for me to learn new things and look beyond the words. I have also been initially wrong on many things — Cara Delevingne’s status as a top model (she’s still not the next Kate Moss), the utility of micro bags (its utility is aesthetics) and socks with sandals (it’s so comfortable, really — warm yet breezy, snug yet free).
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Olivia Rodrigo — Driver’s License
There’s all these talks about the song being about ex-boyfriend Joshua Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter, so the song is mopeyAF. She gets her driver’s license and all she wants to do is drive by her ex-boyfriend’s house to relive the moments?
“And all my friends are tired \ Of hearing how much I miss you, but \ I kinda feel sorry for them \ ‘Cause they’ll never know you the way that I do, yeah”, I feel sorry for her friends too. Olivia, shall we go on a life-changing road trip instead? You drive, I don’t have my license yet.
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Harry Styles — Watermelon Sugar
I’m 80% onwards for appreciation of this song, the styling in the MV is great and the beats are palatable but I just need to reconcile if the song is about strawberries, watermelons or a new hybrid of waterberries — “Tastes like strawberries \ On a summer evenin’ \ And it sounds just like a song \ I want more berries \ And that summer feelin’ \ It’s so wonderful and warm”.
Also, the MV opens with “This song is dedicated to touching”. Hmmm…
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The Kid LAROI — WITHOUT YOU
Firstly, I probably will never understand the Gen-Z styling of the name “The Kid LAROI”. Secondly, how is this not a hate song that is so bitter — “So here I go, oh \ Can’t make a wife out of a ho, oh” and this is in the bridge, repeated twice. “I can’t believe that you wouldn’t believe me \ F*** all of your reasons \ I lost my shit, you know I didn’t mean it” also sounds like a domestic abuse situation.
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Masked Wolf — Astronaut in The Ocean
“What you know about rollin’ down in the deep? \ When your brain goes numb, you can call that mental freeze \ When these people talk too much, put that s*** in slow motion, yeah \ I feel like an astronaut in the ocean, ayy”. I still have no idea what it means to feel like an astronaut in the ocean.
Does space feel like being in the ocean? Is a deep sea explorer called an astronaut these days? If people talk too much and you put it in slow motion, doesn’t that prolong the pain? I have so many questions…
Once you’re done figuring out these lyrics, click here to catch up with our April 2021 issue!
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