The Perfect Pop Song

I'm being irrational but that's what music is supposed to do to/for you, isn't it? I've been listening to 4ever by The Veronicas and consider it to be the greatest pop song ever released. Well, by next month, I know that I won't be thinking this but for the here and now we can add it to the past 10 years worth of perfect pop. And I feel it comfortably slots in with the likes of this hastily put together top 10...

Spice Girls: Wannabe (best debut single by a pop act?)
All Saints: Never Ever (possibly the only song on the list written by the band. Well, Shaznay Lewis, in any case)
Christina Aguilera: Genie In A Bottle (effortlessly better than ANYTHING Britney Spears has or ever will release. Check out the mash up 'A Stroke Of Genious')
A-Ha: Summer Moved On (still my favourite track of the decade)
Avril Lavigne: Sk8er Boi (will someone please use it in a Winter Olympics montage right now?!?)
Beyonce: Crazy In Love (Chuck Klosterman recently wrote this was so good it nearly made his head explode. He was right)
Kelly Clarkson: Since U Been Gone (nearly justifies American Idol)
Jamelia: Superstar (soooo catchy)
Madonna: Beautiful Stranger (I honestly didn't think it was her when I first heard this. That's good, right?)

The Veronicas are twins hailing from Australia. They were born on Christmas Day, which seems to make some sort of strange sense to me. Their names are Lisa and Jessica, which is but one letter away from those of my wife and her sister, which doesn't seem to make as much sense to me. If you know your pop, you won't be surprised to learn that 4ever was produced by Max Martin. He's basically this 35 year old Swedish guy whose slick production and lyrics have sold shedloads for the likes of Britney, Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, among others. I still think there's a great documentary to be done on Martin and it would definitely involve hanging out in Sweden with him and the acts before traveling with the singers around the world to see what kind of reception Martin's work gets. Now that would be a tough gig.

What else? Admittedly, this tune does sound like the Kelly Clarkson smash hit from last year (Martin produced it too so that's hardly a surprise) in that the exact same guitar and intro seem to have been duplicated. But the reason 4Ever is the superior song is all about the lyrics. I can't actually believe I'm giving some semi-serious thought to this but Clarkson is talking about finally being able to move on from heartbreak whereas this is far more pro-active. 4ever is telling every single boy that The Veronicas couldn't care less what girl you might be seeing but no one can possibly compare to spending time with one of them. It links one night of passion to a lifetime of enjoyment and how the young (they've just turned 21) feel immortal and give scant regard to the future. You could take that theory one stage further by suggesting that nobody will even remember 4ever in a couple of years and you might be right. But it doesn't detract from its brilliance and I hope it sells millions of copies across the planet because we would do well to remember that the word pop is simply short for popular.

PS This just in: the Popbitch newsletter has the following item but I would like to point out that my posting beat them to it!


It's Max Martin baby, one more time
The return of the Max is good for pop music

Thank god for Max Martin. Back in the late 90s
his songs like Baby One More Time and Everybody
(Backstreet's Back) ruled the world. Now it's
happening again. His song for Kelly Clarkson,
Since You Been Gone, was many people's pick for
top pop track of 2005; he wrote Analogue for
a-ha, sending them back into the UK top five
for the first time since the 80s; and has
given Pink You and Your Hand, the only good
track she's done since splitting from Linda
Perry. But there's even better to come. The
Veronicas are 20 year-old identical twins from
Brisbane, Jess and Lisa Origliasso. Signed
by Madonna's former mentor, Seymour Stein, in
the States, their first single is a majestic
Max Martin pop-rock anthem, 4Ever. Listen:
http://www.myspace.com/theveronicas

Here we are so what you gonna do?
Do I gotta spell it out for you?
I can see that you got other plans for tonight
But I don’t really care

Size me up you know I beat the best
Tick tock no time to rest
Let them say what their gonna say
But tonight I just don’t really care

Come on baby we ain’t gonna live 4ever
Let me show you all the things that we could do
You know you wanna be together
And I wanna spend the night with you
Yeah, yeah with you, yeah, yeah
Come with me tonight
We could make the night last 4ever

I’ve seen it all I’ve got nothing to prove
Come on baby just make your move
Follow me lets leave it all behind tonight
Like we just don’t care

Let me take you on the ride of your life
That’s what I said alright
They can say what they wanna say
Cause tonight I just don’t even care

Come on baby we ain’t gonna live 4ever
Let me show you all the things that we could do
You know you wanna be together
And I wanna spend the night with you
Yeah, yeah with you yeah, yeah
Come with me tonight
We could make the night last 4ever

Lets pretend you’re mine
We could just pretend, we could just pretend, yeah yeah
You got what I like
You got what I like, I got what you like
Oh come on
Just one taste and you’ll want more

So tell me what your waiting for

Come on baby we ain’t gonna live 4ever
Let me show you all the things that we could do
You know you wanna be together
And I wanna spend the night with you
Yeah, yeah, with you, yeah, yeah
So come with me tonight
We could make the night last 4ever