Can we talk about "Crush" by Jennifer Paige

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Because I don't think we discuss it enough.

It's kind of tempting to see this as the plainer, less popular sister of "Can't Fight The Moonlight" (despite preceeding it by two years), but... I don't know. The vocals marked the last time in popular music anyone attempted to try and sound older than they actually were (you know how when "NU-GARAGE" happened all the indie bands that had turned up in the past six months suddenly got wiped off the radar? Britney/Xtina/Mandy Moore had the same impact on pop). There's the fact that the lyrics play down love without playing up the sexual aspect of a relationship. There's the intense exhaustion that pervades the track. There's the guitar which really doesn't suit the rest of the track, but even so fits in perfectly.

So, yeah. Jennifer Paige- Crush. Good song.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 11:34 (twenty years ago)

how's it go? can't remember it.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 11:38 (twenty years ago)

Jonathan Selzer's epic diatribe.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 11:46 (twenty years ago)

This song is CLASSIC. When I first heard it I thought it was Mariah Carey - a beguiling Mariah Carey, which at the time was impossible. Great bridge, wonderful helium-falsetto chorus.

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 12:58 (twenty years ago)

Yeah I love this song, although I burnt out on it because it was one of six songs that played on loop for about 9 months at the cinema I used to work at.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:06 (twenty years ago)

yeah I totally thought this song was by Mariah the first few hundred times I heard it.

― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:07 (twenty years ago)

Used to hate hate hate this song, re-discovered it doing some research for my 90s box and yeah, it's actually pretty great.

Didn't the Dismemberment Plan cover this at one point? I thought they were insane.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:09 (twenty years ago)

class song. how would selzer read girls aloud i wonder?

― hold tight the private caller (mwah), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:19 (twenty years ago)

the Dismemberment Plan's cover is really creepy and cool.

― Legroom at the Vista (Bent Over at the Arclight), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:19 (twenty years ago)

(would he read girls aloud or to himself, yes nipper i see you)

― hold tight the private caller (mwah), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:20 (twenty years ago)

For some reason the whispering bits in the chorus REALLY bug me. I realize that without them the chorus is less interesting but still, yeck -- it's something visceral I can't put my finger on.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:22 (twenty years ago)

This was also one of Tiefschwarz's first remixes, if I have it right. Pretty good one, also.

― david day (winslow), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:22 (twenty years ago)

Tiefschwarz remixed this?!

...

classic, anyway. wrote about it in loose lips sink ships ages ago. brilliant vocal performance, eliding the negatives and denials just so, almost deliberately encouraging the guy she's addressing to miss them...

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:27 (twenty years ago)

yeah, I could blog it tonight, I suppose. http://squar3.blogspot.com, though I imagine Gill is about 2.7 seconds from YSI'ing it below....

― david day (winslow), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:29 (twenty years ago)

It's decent. And Lex, I told you Tiefschwarz remixed Shakatak and Rick Astley. Grow one memory, dood.

― BARMS, Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:37 (twenty years ago)

I prefer "Make Me" actually - written and produced by the same dudes who did "Crush", much closer to "Can't Fight the Moonlight" but better than it and "Crush" combined, so sexy in its strut, plus sassy latin undertones! it's one of my favourite songs from the last several years.

― Mind Taker, Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:47 (twenty years ago)

This was also one of Tiefschwarz's first remixes, if I have it right. Pretty good one, also.

I'm completely amazed by this.

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

barima i have a terrible memory when i'm SOBER. which i'm not, very much, these days.

i never heard any other j paige songs.

― The Lex (The Lex), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 13:51 (twenty years ago)

For some reason the whispering bits in the chorus REALLY bug me. I realize that without them the chorus is less interesting but still, yeck -- it's something visceral I can't put my finger on.

you mean the "aAHHhhhhhh crushhhhhh" parts, right? yes. HORRIBLE.

― Kim (Kim), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 15:28 (twenty years ago)

I'm glad to see I'm not alone!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 August 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

It's threads like this that make me love this board. I'm not being sarcastic. I mean, THIS song? You almost can't get more random. That there's a thread devoted to it AND there are so many people commenting on it is awesome. I'm completely serious. (btw this song is great).

― Wookie Rookie (Wookie Rookie), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 02:38 (twenty years ago)

here's the tiefschwarz mix:
http://s63.yousendit.com/d.php?id=WX9VOZT9JNKW3ALL9P11YRK0G

― david day -- (dayvidday), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 04:49 (twenty years ago)

Damn David, you beat me by 2.7 seconds!

This track is great and simultaneously reminds me of "Jellyhead" by Crush.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 04:51 (twenty years ago)

I love this board because I like this song and I never knew there was a Tiefschwarz remix of it and now I'm listening to it.

― LeRooLeRoo (Seb), Wednesday, 17 August 2005 17:04 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

AHHHHHHHHHHH.....CRRRUUUUSH.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 27 January 2008 00:05 (eighteen years ago)

ten months pass...

AHHHHHHHHHHH.....CRRRUUUUSH.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 20:37 (seventeen years ago)

^ what 'Wookie Rookie' said.

― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 10 December 2008 20:58 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

This song came out when I was 10 and I remember thinking it was perfect.

― Brad Nelson (BradNelson), Sunday, 29 August 2010 19:41 (fifteen years ago)

and how right you were too.

― Gucci Mane hermeneuticist (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 August 2010 19:41 (fifteen years ago)

I agree. It was a joy to find Putney library selling off its copy of her album for 50p in about 2005.

― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 29 August 2010 20:10 (fifteen years ago)

Easy Lover, He Got Game, this ... great selection of revives today!

― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 29 August 2010 20:11 (fifteen years ago)

two years pass...

AHHHHHHHHHHH.....CRRRUUUUSH.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, January 26, 2008 7:

AHHHHHHHHHHH.....CRRRUUUUSH.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, December 10, 2008

― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 29 May 2013 00:15 (thirteen years ago)

My one complaint earlier stands.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 29 May 2013 00:19 (thirteen years ago)

at this point in my life i tend to want to eyeroll when someone puts this on and the chorus immediately pops into my head, but just the way she cruises through those first three lines is supernaturally flawless and always sucks me right back in

also the vanilla skiiiiies bit inexplicably seems new every time

― r|t|c, Wednesday, 29 May 2013 00:42 (thirteen years ago)

one year passes...

such a great song

remember listening to it on my walkman as a boy and I found it to be a very naughty, dirty song hehe.

― niels, Tuesday, 12 May 2015 08:03 (eleven years ago)

two years pass...

how did I not know this existed sooner

https://soundcloud.com/jen-paige/the-devils-in-the-details_pf#

― sick, fucking funny, and well tasty (katherine), Monday, 14 August 2017 23:36 (eight years ago)

thanks, really enjoying this! (and it's still only the second JP song I've heard in my life)

― the old rugged crocs (unregistered), Tuesday, 15 August 2017 02:27 (eight years ago)

Crush is lit.

― billstevejim, Tuesday, 15 August 2017 05:01 (eight years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.