Single Saturdays: December 2, 2023

Single Saturdays is Five Cent Sound’s weekly roundup, where our staff members share a song that they’ve fallen in love with and make their case for why others should give it a listen.

“And I told them I invented Times New ROman” by Dance Gavin Dance

By Maya Eberlin

I vividly remember the moment “And I Told Them I Invented Times New Roman” came into my life. It was a chilly, late-September Tuesday morning and I had just woken up at my best friend’s house. He had woken up long before me to catch the bus, and I sipped his homemade iced coffee out of a Philadelphia Eagles tumbler as I walked to school at 7:45am with this track blasting through my wired headphones.

The most initially noticeable thing about this song is, of course, the title: ridiculous both in its length and in the claim it makes, the title serves as a tongue-in-cheek jab at MySpace-era metalcore song titles. Dance Gavin Dance’s two lead vocalists, Jon Mess and Jonny Craig, switch off every couple of lines. The pair’s different vocal techniques give the song a cyclical nature, with each softly sung verse acting as a gradual buildup to a (quite literally) screaming climax.

As for the lyrics, they seem nonsensical at first — the screamed and sung verses have, seemingly, nothing at all to do with one another. The two vocalists are taking turns telling entirely different stories. Deeply romantic and erotic lines are a precursor for screamed imagery of a demolished battlefield in sequences such as, “I’ve placed every mole there is to place/on your wasted body” followed almost immediately by “as the window left shattered now/we saw the withered body try to shout.” These disjointed lines become cohesive in the greater context of the song, as the two stories fully collide in the final verse when the separate vocals begin to overlap atop high-pitched electric guitar and a thumping drum beat. 

 “And I Told Them I Invented Times New Roman” is cathartic and addicting: no matter how many years I spend overplaying this song, I still can’t seem to shake it.

“COLMILLO” BY TAINY FEAT. Young Miko, singer J. Balvin and Jowell & Randy

BY GIANNA DI CRISTO

Puerto Rican producer Tainy’s “COLMILLO” is a bonus track on his long awaited debut album DATA that dropped this summer. It features rapper Young Miko, singer J. Balvin and reggaeton duo Jowell & Randy. In this bonus track, all four musicians want to give this irresistible woman in the club “fangs,” or in other words, make a good girl go bad (and go home with them). Tainy gives listeners an electrifying dance beat for about half the song. Although there’s been attempts in American pop music to try and bring back this nostalgia of maximalist club hits from the 2000s-2010s, artists have only gotten as far as sampling and covering older dance songs. For example, Bebe Rexha and David Guetta’s “I’m Good,” sampling “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” by Eiffel 65, Ava Max’s “My Head & My Heart” sampling “All Around The World (La La La La La La) by A Touch of Class and Nightcrawlers’ “Friday — Dopamine Re-Edi” that reworks their very own “Push The Feeling On” in collaboration with the DJ known as MK from thirty-one years ago (Every 2000s kid has heard this track sampled in Pitbull’s “Hotel Room Service”). Drake also pushed forward his unexpected and semi-well received album that platformed house music and Jersey Club into the mainstream with Honestly, Nevermind. But, what Tainy manages to do is not only give us a feeling of what it may have been like to be in a club ten years ago (most of us too young to experience such a thing) — but also makes this nostalgia refreshing. The beat isn’t a sample of a hit we already know and love, it’s from scratch. It’s intoxicating and jolts your body into dancing instantly.

For me, the little glitches in the voices and breakdowns hit the spot. It gives a sound to DATA’s album cover: very futuristic and cyborg-like. Young Miko’s gritty voice raps over the beat and it feels like her voice is made for it. J. Balvin comes in singing at the chorus with an absolute earworm of a melody. At about two minutes in, the beat flips to a slower, seductive reggaeton beat and then Jowell & Randy hop on — you can’t help but pay attention to the distinctive voices spitting game. From the moment the song begins, I’m hooked. A voice goes on loop for a few seconds and builds on the beat. The slight distortion on everyone’s voices gives the song this uniform, but perfectly fitting layer that makes it a solid dance track. In between verses there’s heavy breathing, setting the stage for the beat to reintroduce itself. These slight breaks make it hit harder each time. You get two sounds in one song, both equally as catchy and danceable as the other. “COLMILLO” is a track that belongs in every club, and should be an example to those trying to bring back dance music.

“I’LL GIVE YOU THE MOON” BY CHARLIE BENNETT

BY OLIVIA LINDQUIST

Immediately different from most of his other music, Charlie’s “I’ll Give You the Moon” begins with an upbeat tempo. Having been released back in March, this song has been on constant repeat because, though it is a love song, I can picture myself jumping around in rain puddles with friends as I listen. It feels like something out of an indie coming-of-age movie about just enjoying the little things based on vibes alone.

As with most of his other singles, “I’ll Give You the Moon” holds that love — one where you’d do anything for another person if they asked — up to the spotlight and gave it a poppy, dance feel. The joy of letting your “heart take the fall” is such a vulnerable thing that I feel Bennett encapsulates well. Giving my everything, giving the moon, calls out to the hopeless romantic in me who craves to have that attachment to someone. It warms my heart.

Even if you’re not the hopeless romantic type, this single deserves a listen.

“Sunshine baby” by The Japanese house (IteIAD Sessions)

By Daphne Bryant

One thing about me? I know how to wear a song out until it’s dry heaving, sweaty and tired. There are certain tracks that live in my head rent-free, songs that bloom into intense obsession. “Sunshine Baby” by The Japanese House is the latest of these fixations. I feel lucky that my first time hearing “Sunshine Baby” was as part of the ITEIAD Sessions, a collection of live versions from her most recent album, In The End It Always Does, released in June of this year.  The song, itself, is just an absolute masterpiece — a genius little gay piece of art. Amber Rain, better known as The Japanese House, and her ex used to refer to themselves as sunshine babies when they would go and lie on the beach together. Rain passionately sings, “I don’t wanna fight anymore / Sitting in the back seat, driving with my sunshine baby / Well, I’ve gone a little crazy, surely, someone’s gonna save me now.” The lyrics are sentimental, a nod to the end of their relationship, that waning out of love, but a peaceful, cyclical kind of waning. After my first listen, I felt emotional and healed all at the same time, so it’s safe to say I was hooked. I listened to the original — the live version of “Sunshine Baby” is arguably better. The sessions don’t have that typical electronic, heavy production feel typically found in The Japanese House’s work (obviously, because they’re live). This makes the song feel more intimate, infused with folkloric instrumentation and intense, raw vocals. It’s grounding and at the same time, makes you feel like you’re floating and ascending somewhere it’s okay for love to hurt and ache. This song alone motivated me to buy a ticket to see The Japanese House in Boston, so trust me when I say it’s fucking good. Just one listen, give it JUST ONE CHANCE.