Is this a hit record?<\/p>\n
I told myself I was swearing off Howard Stern, that I was going to listen to music in the car.\u00c2\u00a0 And pushing the buttons, I stumbled on this on SiriusXM’s Coffee House.<\/p>\n
It’s got the lolling groove of a Jack Johnson song, the sing-songiness of Colbie Caillat’s big hit and the jaunty irreverence of Jason Mraz’s "I’m Yours".\u00c2\u00a0 Which means it’s completely derivative, but…<\/p>\n
I turned it off halfway through, I was at my destination, home.\u00c2\u00a0 But as I was walking up the sidewalk, I found myself singing this song I’d only heard a minute of.\u00c2\u00a0 Repeatability, singability, aren’t those the keys to hits?<\/p>\n
I immediately fired up Safari and started searching.\u00c2\u00a0 Needing to hear this track again.\u00c2\u00a0 But it wasn’t easy to find.\u00c2\u00a0 The act’s name is Loyola, meaning the results end up being every parochial school in America.\u00c2\u00a0 But, I ultimately found the album on Amazon.<\/p>\n
With no comments.<\/p>\n
And more Googling put me on Loyola’s MySpace page.\u00c2\u00a0 Where I found the song only had 195 plays.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, it was not yet a smash.<\/p>\n
The label was an independent.\u00c2\u00a0 The CD is out of stock.\u00c2\u00a0 But somehow someone got to SiriusXM.\u00c2\u00a0 If that someone was bigger, let’s say Monte at Universal Republic, could "Easier Life" be an utter smash?<\/p>\n
I’d say the odds are really good.<\/p>\n
This completely derivative track is better than anything Jimmy Buffett’s written in decades.\u00c2\u00a0 And there’s a skill in nailing the essence of what’s come before, isn’t that Diane Warren’s skill?<\/p>\n
It’s summer.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a gin & tonic\/pina colada song.\u00c2\u00a0 Something to play as you’re sipping under the umbrella, hanging out on the dock, watching the sun set.<\/p>\n
Muscle means everything when it comes to hits today.\u00c2\u00a0 And, ironically, most of the Top Forty beat-driven stuff lives in a ghetto, it never penetrates the mainstream (except in the reporting of the mainstream media, which doesn’t like to believe it’s on its last legs).\u00c2\u00a0 Then you get something different, like the aforementioned Mraz song, and it ends up selling for a year, being almost ubiquitous, because it’s easily singable, unlike anything that came before.<\/p>\n
"Easier Life" is similar to what came before.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish the lyrics were a bit better.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s an amazing hook, which so many people can resonate with.<\/p>\n
Listen here:<\/p>\n
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