Drops of Jupiter [revisited]

[it's me, valentine]-- again, suffering from paralyzing fear of blog voice/lack of inspiration, I find myself once more cruising the "edit posts" venue and lo and behold, Drops of Jupiter is here (thanks, ELF) to open up the floor for discussion: WHY IS THIS SONG ACTUALLY GOOD?

I just returned from a x-country road trip (departing from NAH NAH! no!) on which despite having made over a dozen mix tapes for the ride (eclectic! fun!), radio still ruled supreme. Despite our perhaps differing musical radio tastes (he says: "Where's the RAP?!" These rural airwaves were lacking, to say the least), this song brought us together in a seek/scan-stopping moment of "Yesss!" when it came on around Merill, Wisconsin-- his desire for bombastic beats and nasty lyrics and my nasty opportunistic love of well, everything--became one big cornfield soundtrack sing-along (genius of) love fest. Unexpected results! Unknown variables? Inspect!

Is it correct to say the song gets to us cause lyrics are so bad they're good? Lines like "she checks out Mozart while she does tae-bo" and (of course) "the best soy latte that you've ever had in me (?)" seem to suggest this, but I suspect there's something more: Is it in the epic, cinematic string instrumental that sounds like (or is) the closing scene to every bad female-oriented television show? Or the incessant string of questions he (the guy, Train dude--looks like Sean Penn in my mind) lays on us in the chorus (Rhetorical? Slightly angry? "Did you finally get the chance to dance across the light of day?" WELL, DID YOU?!?!) Maybe its the expertly-crafted sing-along "nah nah nahs" near the end of the song--the perfect tool for bringing together lyrics knowers and non-knowers alike. (However, I always hate this part of songs. Did they run out of lyrics? I'm embarrassed. Not singing this part.)

Personally, my favorite part is when he asks, in a completely earnest and slightly off-key squeal: "Did Venus blow your mind?" Yeah, it was OK.

Given the profusion of outer-space metaphor, its kind of hard to understand what kind of girl this guy is singing about, which makes the song a little less fun. BUT, If I had to guess, I'd bet she's related to (friends with, works out with) the brazen and ever-talented Virginia from "Meet Virginia".



Just realized both songs are by Train.

{by the way guys, we need to start commenting on each others posts more. NAH, i miss you lots and ELF your posts are bomb. let's make a web of commentary love/build cause despite distance--we ARE the supremes.]