https://soundcloud.com/brokeballer/raw-sugar-thisisthepart-part-22-of-31

#ThisIsThePart, Part 22 of 31: Raw Sugar

“I don’t want to say it /

The news is not so good /

We’ll never get away /

And even if we could /

We’d just play the tambourine /

Around an open flame /

Oversleep and burn /

To be back in the game . . ”

~ from “Raw Sugar” by Metric

I got Grow Up And Blow Away (the band Metric’s formal release of their original demo record) when I heard it playing at CD Game Exchange in College Park, Maryland. (Or maybe it was the CD Game Exchange in Silver Spring and I just checked it out because I thought the cover looked cool. By the way, did I ever tell you how I got these scars?) Anyway, I proceeded to fall in love with the uniqueness of their sound. And when the only other Metric fan I ever knew (a crazy-pierced, crazy-tatted, crazy tall, crazy assed chica whom I still called Blondie even after she changed her hair color, an affront for which she rewarded me by forever calling me Dagwood) told me that they changed their style after this record so we probably dug two different Metrics, I allowed that to discourage me from even checking out the rest of their catalog.

How fleeting “love” be’s indeed.

Fast forward to the sunny Sunday on which I was jogging around Dupont Circle, grateful to a resident who agreed to spray me with his gardening hose as I passed, and “Raw Sugar” came on via shuffle.

Then it came on again (and again) via my inability to let it go.

As always, I was astounded by the somehow grounded lyrical abstractions, the murky mixture of frankness and vagueness, the pointed poetics, the melancholy yet upbeat strings and things. This may have been right around when my hero Weird Al Yankovic had the number one album in the country and I thought to myself, “Well, I don’t think even Weird Al has done a Metric spoof. Here’s my chance to one-up my idol!”

What came out was this snark attack of an ode to arguments; an alt-pop answer to Aaliyah’s “We Need A Resolution”.

On account of we still do.

“‘No, I’m not complaining . . ‘ /

Nope, I’m just communicating /

But communicating complaints is called complaining /

But not communicating complaints is frustrating /

Raw sugar, teeth decaying . . ”

Painting courtesy of www.reshadapullenjireh.com .

Photography courtesy of www.rdionefoto.com .

https://soundcloud.com/brokeballer/raw-sugar-thisisthepart-part-22-of-31