Pop music has always been the more willing to please relative to rock in all of its various incarnations. Most often, when handled superficially, it leads to jingles, poor imitations, or, at best, a quickly outdated fad. When done right, it’s one of life’s most easy to enjoy pleasures. In Theaters Friday, an alt-rock group with a taste for pop-punk shenanigans, deliver just this on “Lightly”, arguably the group’s greatest song.
In the rare instances when a melodic three-chord single truly powers its way into the ear lobes of the audiences it is supposed to entertain, it’s difficult to explain the methods at work. Usually, the effect is dependent on a strong chorus above all else. While a few more bucks thrown into the production could turn this particular tune into a pop-behemoth, as things stand, the chorus to “Lightly” is still as pleasing as it gets.
If you’re not going to bother clicking on the link to the song, I’ll do my best to sum it up for you. This tune sounds like the centre-piece of a rock-movie featuring the kind of rags to approximate riches story best appreciated in something like That thing you do!. Sometimes people-pleasing is not such a heinous sin.
