Monday, July 29, 2024

Portions for Foxes: Magnapop

"Portions for Foxes" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song by a woman or a band led by a woman. See the introduction for more.

This is one of the older songs in this series this year, going all the way back to 1994. Magnapop was a great, somewhat grungy power pop band of that era - like a lot of my favorites, I thought they should have been vastly more popular than they ended up being.

This is my favorite of their songs, a loud fast rush with singer (and co-songwriter) Linda Hopper nearly chanting, in a low almost flat tone, above very loud guitars. It has that jangly power-pop energy, driven by louder, grungier instrumentation, to make an intense rush of sound that comes to a perfect ending moment.

I think there's some pop-psychology going on here, but I've never spent a lot of time to tease it out: loud fast songs can be explicated, but they can also just be enjoyed. There's clearly some anger-management going on, though - and the singer is talking to the one with the anger problem:

Lay it down for the last time
And then turn away
Lay it down for the last time
Surely show your rage

This is yet another song that dives in, takes over, rearranges a bunch of things, and then slams back out. It does all that wonderfully, and I hope you enjoy it.

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