Personal Selections No. 14- Everybody Makes Mistakes (Except Lisa Frank)
songs for starting the year on bright notes
The other night I was, as I often am, talking to my best friend Megan on Facetime at a time when I probably should have been asleep. In exchanging office stories and trying to reckon with the menial mistakes we made last week on the clock, we obviously cited the sage wisdom of legendary pop star, Hannah Montana:
“Everybody makes mistakes, everybody has those days, everybody knows what - what I’m talking ‘bout, everybody gets that way.”
Megan and I proceeded to talk about how we doubt that the writers and producers of the hit Nobody’s Perfect by Hannah Montana1 could have predicted just how much of a guiding light that song would become for its target audience, even as we have aged into young adulthood.
By the time we hung up, it was nearly a quarter past midnight and it hit me that Ariana Grande’s new single “Yes, And?”2 had just released so my thumbs rushed to go click on it. Thematically, it paired so well with the classic of our childhood that Megan and I had just been gushing over. Listening to this single countless times in the last 24 hours and following the playlist Megan made of the combined discography of Ms. Montana and Miley Cyrus after our conversation got me thinking about the power of an up-beat, self-love pop song. An ultra-saturated, Lisa Frank-adjacent hit inspired by the notion that you are as treasured as a rainbow printed leopard.3 This is the kind of energy I would like to harness to jumpstart my year, and it’s the kind of defiant optimism I think is necessary, even sacred, to fight the very real evil already wreaking havoc in 2024.
So without further ado, here is a tiny list of songs inspired by the pink beacons of hope that are “Nobody’s Perfect” and “Yes, And?” (which are also songs you should listen to today).
Femininomenon x Chappell Roan
Spotify was recommending Chappell Roan’s debut album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” as soon as it came out in September of last year but I, being as stubborn as I am, didn’t give it a chance until November. Two months of my life where I could have been listening to Chappell Roan and wasn’t that I’ll never get back.
There are several pedal-to-the-metal pop wins on this album, but this one in particular, the opener, is a stand-out to me for the way it successfully incorporates a revving motorcycle, a cowbell, and Chappell screaming between choruses to “play something with a [expletive] beat!!!!” all on the first track. For all those reasons, it has become one of my go-to commute hype songs.
no tears left to cry x Ariana Grande
Sweetener was the album that made me a proud Ariana Grande fan. The brilliant collaboration between Pharrell and Grande is so evident across the whole record, and it was life-changing for little 20 year old me. “no tears left to cry” was one of the singles from the album, and while I also love several of the less popular album tracks, Ariana really did put something magic in that first chorus outro:
“I’m picking it up, picking it up, I’m loving, I’m living so we turn it up.”
Speaking of that first chorus, there aren’t enough pop songs these days that begin with that dramatic, slowed down version of the chorus in the very front of the song. I just love the theater of it all. Besides those addictively catchy hooks and drama, Ariana’s vocal performance on this track is stellar in a way that invites you to belt along. In a way that makes you think, “oh for sure I can do that run!” You can’t but it doesn’t matter, it’s the concentrated positivity this song serves that still keeps me coming back.
KEEP IT UP x Rex Orange County
I’ve said for years now that Rex Orange County is one of the voices of the Zillenial generation (those of us 96-99 babies that bridge the gap between millennials and gen z). He is one of the pioneers of the late twenty-teens rise of bedroom pop and yet rose to fame before the Tiktok stardom of many of his younger gen z contemporaries in the genre. His music has grown beyond bedroom pop boundaries but has remained both highly personal and experimental.
Case in point: this song, which was the opener to his latest album.4 With its groovy kick drum and keyboard accompanying earnestly optimistic lyrics, it was the perfect companion for me as I was trying to finish a master’s thesis that was kicking my butt. Plus, it features Rex Orange County’s sonic trademark sure to brighten your day: layers of his own voice in delightfully crunchy harmonies throughout. Just a sample of how pure the lyrics of this song are:
“Keep it up and go on
You're only holding out for what you want
You no longer owe the strangers
It's enough, it's enough”
I would be remiss not to mention that this album art prominently features Dalmatians and further proves my point that all good things somehow point back to our Patron Saint of Feminine Optimism, Lisa Frank.
If you’re still reading, you’re a beautiful, rare bird! I’m hoping you, specifically, will be keen to notice all the goodness 2024 has to offer you. If you haven’t already, maybe you will subscribe to this humble newsletter? It’s my passion project and it’s totally free!
I envision this particular performance every time I need to summon this mantra
I should also mention how excited I am to see if the rest of her new album will include the same bounce, dance hall sound. All credit of course to Beyonce’s masterpiece Renaissance for the revival of dance hall music in the mid 2020s. Thank you, Bey.
Anyone else captivated as a kid specifically by the Lisa Frank rainbow leopard print? I believed then, and I suppose I still do, that a spiral bound notebook featuring that bright character on the front was all I needed to fix everything.
It was at this exact moment that I realized that all three of these songs are the opening tracks to the albums on which they belong. Maybe really great albums can sometimes demand a level of self-love to break the ice.
This was very good for my Sunday scaries, thank you 🙏