As Colin’s Top Ten Guilty Pleasures list the other week was pretty popular, we’ve decided to make a series of it. (If you haven’t read Colin’s post then please do check it out here.) Guilty pleasures are always going to be subjective and I don’t doubt that you may not relate to the ten in my list, these are just ten songs that I quite like myself.
Colin ordered his list alphabetically by artist name, so I will do the same:
The All-American Rejects – Swing, Swing
Alphabetisation deems that I get my most ‘punk’ song out of the way first, albeit super poppy pop punk in my opinion. The All-American Rejects’ debut album ought to be too poppy and ‘whiney-broken-hearted-teenage-boy’ for my general tastes but I do have a soft spot for some of the songs on it. Most memorable is catchy lead single Swing, Swing. I also saw the band live ten or so years ago, which I can’t say about anything else on this list.
Ava Max – Sweet But Psycho
This is the newest song on my list, having only been released last year although I did have to Google ‘Psycho song’ to actually find out who the artist was. I first heard this catchy little dance-pop tune on a Spotify playlist at work and enjoyed it more than most of the other rubbish that gets played on those sort of lists. However, I’ve been enjoying the track more recently as it is used in my Body Step exercise class!
Bon Jovi – Livin’ On A Prayer
Bon Jovi in general are definitely seen as a guilty pleasure to some but certainly not to Mama Prew. I grew up listening to a lot of Bon Jovi and I didn’t much like it at the time. I can appreciate them for what they are now and I’m glad my mum had a band she was passionate about. There are probably far better Bon Jovi songs than Livin’ On A Prayer – and, if I thought about it, I could probably pick one I like more – but this is the best song to scream along to. ‘Whoa-OH!’
Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You
This is the the first song I remember liking as a child. It was released in 1995 so I would have been about 4 years old. There’s just something about the tune that I liked, I think. The song does have a pretty cool effect-heavy guitar riff that runs throughout it. That’s about all I have to say on this one.
Elton John / The Lion King – Can You Feel The Love Tonight?
The Lion King is my favourite film of all time – the original 1994 film that is. The whole soundtrack is my guilty pleasure… in fact, I probably feel less guilty about it than anything else on this list. I love it so much that I even own it on vinyl. As this is a guilty pleasures list though, I’ve picked the most cheesy lovey-dovey song on the soundtrack. And, as much as I also love Elton John, it has to be the version with Timon, Pumba, Nala and Simba.
Junior Senior – Move Your Feet
Junior Senior were a Danish pop duo who, in 2003, released one of the most infectiously catchy songs of the year – of the decade even. Great music, pretty good lyrics and a brilliant 8-bit music video as well. I don’t think there will be too many people reading this who don’t think this song is a TUNE. I don’t know if Junior Senior actually released any other songs in the UK after this but sometimes the best songs are one hit wonders.
Justin Timberlake – Cry Me A River
Justin Timberlake is an artist that I don’t ever go out of my way to listen to but if someone was to put his songs on, at work or wherever, I would secretly quite enjoy it. I guess his debut album, Justified, is the best place to start and Cry Me A River stands out to me. I don’t know, the combination of synthesisers, electric piano, beatboxing and backing vocals is just really pleasing to the ear.
Men Without Hats – The Safety Dance
80s new wave/synth pop is just the best, isn’t it? I would argue that this sort of song is so widely loved as a ‘guilty pleasure’ that it’s actually not very guilty anymore. I have a particular soft spot for this song because my housemate at uni Joel and his best pal Richard used to always put the song on all of our pre-drinks playlists. Fun fact: Apparently, the song was written after Men Without Hats singer Ivan Doroschuk had been kicked out of a club for pogo dancing.
Shakira – Whenever, Wherever
Who doesn’t like panpipes in their pop songs? I sure do anyway. Shakira combined traditional Latin American and Andean music with modern pop music and created this worldwide smash hit that, at least in the mainstream, sounded unlike anything else at the time. I also like the song She Wolf because I enjoy howling along (I love wolves) but the song is more electro-pop and less original-sounding, if you ask me.
Starship – We Built This City
And finally we have more glorious 80s music, this time from US pop rock band Starship. It seems, according to Wikipedia, that this song has appeared on several ‘worst songs of all time’ lists but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying it. Even if part of my enjoyment comes from singing ‘We built this city on [vegan] sausage rolls!’.
So there we have it, now I’ll go back to listening to punk rock…
This top ten was written by Emma Prew.
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