Trigger warning. There’s an unexpected F-bomb in “Cherry Baby” by Jenny Lewis. However, this song is a perfect summer jam.
Jenny Lewis’ voice goes down like a shot of Fireball whiskey. As for the keyboards or synths or keys—whatever the kids are call it nowadays–chime out a four-chord ditty. And unexpectedly, there’s a little bit of Weezer to that riff.
–Sarah Torribio
Bye the bye, I just discovered that I wrote a more in-depth review of “Cherry Baby” not too long ago. I’ve been working my way back to doing some music writing.
And in my prior review, I also noted the Weezer-esque melody. If I say it twice, it must be true. Here’s the text of my previous assessment, in case you want to dive deeper into the mind of a Gen X music fangirl.
This song is smooth, uplifting, fun and strangely enough has a guitar moment that sounds like Weezer power-chording and downstroking their way through “Island in the Sun.” There’s also a slight melodic nod to Janet Jackson’s “Let’s Wait a While.”
That’s just an observation. I have no idea if it’s intentional. Tell me if I’m crazy, because I’m the kind of gal that hears the intro to the Beatles’ “Lady Madonna” amid “What I Got” by “Sublime.” I’m the kind of Rain Man-esque music fan–perhaps you’d call me an autist, who here’s a touch of Bryam Adams “The Summer of ’69” in Green Day’s “Jesus of Suburbia.” You know the melodically interchangeable lines: ” City of the Dead/At the end of another lost highway” (Billie Joe Armstrong) and “Standing on your mother’s porch/You told me you would Wait Forever/ Oh and when you held my hand/I knew that it was now or never.”
Back to Jenny Lewis and her latest There’s plenty original in this song, including unexpected chord changes and a pretty voice. It starts dripping with bedroom funk, Sade in a sundress.Jenny Lewis’ voice goes down as easy as ginger ale when you’ve got a stomach ache. And then it turns into a sophisticated piece of indie rock.
There are fascinating shifts of musical themes and a bold dabbling with time signatures. I don’t want to oversell it, but this song deserves to be a summer blockbuster hit.
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