Mixtapes for Hookers

[My favorite songs of 2002 list continues with a pair of songs that sound about as different as two songs could possibly sound (but which are still alphabetically next to each other in my CD collection.)]

2. The Breeders, Off You, and Brandy, What About Us?

After a nine-year break between albums, the Breeders returned with the shockingly beautiful Title TK. It’s a record full of slow, sad, great songs, and none is slower or sadder or better than Off You, which was also the album’s first single. It sounds nothing at all like Cannonball, the song the group is best known for, and it should probably surprise no one that Warner Brothers ended up dropping the band after Title TK failed to sell.

On Off You, Kim Deal sounds hungover, and the band’s playing like it’s not sure it should be making any noise.  There’s one electronic noise near the beginning, but then whoever made it gives up.  Meanwhile, Deal’s saying words that don’t totally make sense; her phrasing is really odd. She says “going strange” and “the violence of you” and “fortune me” as though those are things that people say.  When she gets to the chorus it’s even more cryptic.  I have no idea what “the autumn in your scarlet” is, but the slow ache with which she says those few words gives them more emotional resonance than most other songs could ever hope for.

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