The 333 Best Pop Songs of the 2000s: #275

#275: "Pump Up the Volume" (2007) - Art Brut

This past decade has ushered in an era of British indie artists whose speak-sing vocals sound very British. Bands such as the Libertines and the Streets were progenitors, and I didn't (and still don't) like their records, and it's because of the singers. It's not because of their British accents, though; it's because their singers are so cold, so unemotional, so devoid of personality. Art Brut (French for, basically, outsider art)'s lead singer Eddie Argos is perhaps the least vocally talented of any of the new wave of British indie bands (and perhaps the least vocally talented of any singer on this list), but he's got two things going for him that differentiates him from his British brethren: his charm and his insistance on speaking instead of singing (which is, circularly, part of his charm).

Argos seems completely without guile, and his lyrics sound like confessions or conversations with his analyst. He speaks them with a distance, as a matter-of-fact, like he's reading his journal aloud. His inflections are a speaker's inflections, not a singers, and that technique gives Art Brut its unique sound (but only when Argos "sings;" when he doesn't, the band sounds like a regular indie rock band--a good one, though). This song here contains the most famous/infamous lyric Argos has written, as he states/sings in the chorus: "Is it so wrong/To break from your kiss/To turn up a pop song?" In the verses, he describes how he found himself in that situation to begin with, and--with the chorus as a kicker, a punch line--it's funny as all get out. And it's not a comedy record, either. Argos means it, or at least tells the story as if he does.

He doesn't seem to understand why she's angry, either. Whoo-boy! If I ever postponed making out with my wife in order to listen to a song on the radio, then my wife wouldn't show me any affection for a week (oh wait)...uh, a month (oh wait), uh...she'd kick me out of the bedroom (oh wait....) We already know what pop song he heard that tore him away from his lover. What song is that? It's the song's title! So, let's put the needle on the record as the drum beats go like this: