Sixpence None The Richer's 'Kiss Me' - who else loves it?

I did not realize until just now that this thread was started by the villain from the latest Iron Man film, somewhere early in the timeline of his transformation from wounded, rejected, geeky scientist to fiery, immoral uberman.

Thanks to this song, I love Freddie Prinze, Jr..

it's a lovely song

Gorgeous song

good chord progression for beginner guitarists too.

I think a more charitable read of that one line would be “Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance. Silver moon's sparkling.” Like, these are separate ideas. The fireflies are not "dancing silver moon's sparkling". Save that shit for Owl City.

I really only know this song and Breathe Your Name, which I really love, and then several covers like Don't Dream It's Over and Dancing Queen, which are so unnecessary. Is anyone familiar enough with their albums to recommend anything further?

good chord progression for beginner guitarists too.
idd

this song is great, it imagines a slow coronal world in which the sundays got big enough in the us to score teen movies (fear excepted)

I was living in Sydney when this came out. It's inextricably linked with me being skint and locked out of the weightless preening narcissism of the city. I hate it.

^ can’t blame you

“... an all-purpose margarine smeared over the toast of a Clinton-era lust”(!)

this is a good song and I literally cannot imagine disliking it

Alfred, here’s what I don’t get: you recently dissed “Don’t Speak” because of what you diagnosed as (I recall) Gwen’s failure to convincingly “sell” the song; and you are similarly harsh on the vocal performance in “Kiss Me” — yet you love Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn,” whose vocal could most charitably be described as “serviceable,” and which is certainly less charismatic or “convincing” than either of these two “Worst Singles Ever.”

as a kid i thought the lyric was ‘sailor moon sparkling’

otm

you love Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn,” whose vocal could most charitably be described as “serviceable,” and which is certainly less charismatic or “convincing” than either of these two “Worst Singles Ever.”

a matter of opinion! I find her winsomeness convincing.

Fair enuff

I like this song but people comparing her vocal to Harriet Wheeler are so crazy, there's nowhere near the expressiveness or frustration or wistfulness in this you can find in any The Sundays song

sorry i'm crazy!

i guess i'll agree with that still, it wasn't a one-to-one comparison

This song is great in its own right, but in my head is like the John the Baptist to the Lord and Saviour that is Bic Runga’s “Sway”.

oh god i haven't thought about "sway" in forever

As for The Sundays resemblance, I think with stuff like “Kiss Me” and Natalie’s “Wrong Impression” there’s a certain... satisfying breeziness that comes from the fact that the singers are not on Harriet’s level of emotional nuance and expressiveness. I mean both performances are very pretty and expressive by ordinary standards but they do stop short of Harriet’s ability to capture an entire life in a turn of phrase like a pressed butterfly, and that kind of allows them to be simply affecting in a way that The Sundays’ work is too powerful for.

Perhaps the only Sundays song that comes close to that territory is “Summertime” - interestingly though it’s not at all because Harriet tones things down but that the song is so extremely ebullient that the two forces tend to cancel each other out if you’re not paying attention (and then once you do pay attention it becomes more obviously a deeply layered masterpiece).

So I guess what i’m saying is that the comparison is kind of unfair given the Sundays have made some of the best music of all time and let’s all be allowed to enjoy the lesser but considerable charms of “Kiss Me” and “Wrong Impression”.

Harriet’s ability to capture an entire life in a turn of phrase like a pressed butterfly

otm / goddamn

lol at nabisco's line from 15 years ago: " "Kiss Me" sounds like the Sundays relocating to Dawson's Creek".

I just watched "Sway" again and I think the slight difference is that "Sway" sounds marginally better in my head then on record whereas the reverse is true for "Kiss Me", perhaps because Bic's singing dominates the former (and it's easier to capture the richness of the sound of vocals in memory IME) whereas the number one selling point of "Kiss Me" is the arrangement.

This is leading me down a wormhole of listening to Missy Higgins' "The Special Two" at 4am in the morning, oh no.

Huh, "Sway" never charted in the states. That's...odd.

Whut.

Never trust America.

I lost interest in the Sundays with "Summertime" – 'ebullience' is the right word but it's too spelled out, didactic? You can see the DNA connecting it and "Kiss Me."

Your reaction makes sense to me but I think "Summertime" benefits more from close attention - there's much more shade to its light than is first apparent. The way the second verse so closely mirrors the first but entirely reverses the narrative into one of tragedy and disaster, even if slightly winking, recasts the entire rest of the song (and retroactively the earlier stretch of the song) as an elegy to fleeting happiness - hence the final line, "...or have I read too much fiction? Is this how it happens?"

In this regard I wouldn't agree that it's "didactic" - the didactic version of the same song is probably The Future Bible Heroes' "Real Summer" (though that song prospers by its gloomy insistence on spelling things out).

I lost interest in the Sundays with "Summertime"

smh

Your reaction makes sense to me but I think "Summertime" benefits more from close attention - there's much more shade to its light than is first apparent. The way the second verse so closely mirrors the first but entirely reverses the narrative into one of tragedy and disaster, even if slightly winking, recasts the entire rest of the song (and retroactively the earlier stretch of the song) as an elegy to fleeting happiness - hence the final line, "...or have I read too much fiction? Is this how it happens?"

there was a period a few years ago where i was really falling for someone but the entire situation was full of uncertainty and seemed like it could fall apart at any point and i sure did listen to "summertime" a lot then

Huh, "Sway" never charted in the states. That's...odd.

― Making Plans For Sturgill (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, June 19, 2018 11:19 AM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh huh i guess i'm only aware of it bc of the american pie soundtrack

I think that's were most of us here discovered it.

It was a CVS jam for awhile.

whereas the number one selling point of "Kiss Me" is the arrangement.

last time i heard ‘kiss me’ i thought the opposite. it’s like those band practices where someone brings a melody and chord progression so killer you know all you have to do is stay out of the way

‘Sway’ is beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4vkasTzVeU

^^ 'Shouei'/Sway of some sorts, and would've fitted Dawsons Creek perfectly.

Also, 'Kiss Me' rules, Alfred (for once) drools.

I am a man with a beer gut, a propane grill, and approximately eleven guitars and I like or love every song mentioned in this thread. I didn't care that "Wrong Impression" felt like a Sundays imitation, because even imitating the Sundays is a way to evoke the joy I get from the actual Sundays. Even if "Summertime" or "Static & Silence" constitute the Sundays imitating the Sundays I am all for it. More please.

I think I even owned the Sixpence CD with "Kiss Me." No regrets, even if I turned up my nose at the Christian stuff ("Waiting Room").

How about "Breathe Your Name"? The lyrics seem obviously Xtian; but I always thought it was clever how it fit on secular radio b/c it could be (mis-)heard as referring to romantic rather than religious rapture, if you weren't listening closely.

Yeah morrisp, compare the Amy Grant of "Unguarded" - love songs that could easily be read as romantic or religious as the audience required.

or Michelle Branch's Everywhere.

donna lewis the goat

relistening to this properly and realising what a reserved vocal performance it is, I can imagine it makes a more fun song to inhabit as a listener that you can't do with a song by The Sundays in the same way

"Wrong Impression" is a great song but in an entirely different way - giddy and glossy and widescreen in a way "Kiss Me" struggles to reach and The Sundays aren't trying to

re: giddy glossiness, compare "Break Out."

If you were music supervisor on a contemporary remake of She’s All That, which song would you have play when Laney comes down the staircase?

"All That" by Carly Rae, obvi