Why Ben Kweller Could Have Saved The Year 2002

Kate Richardson | May 21, 2008 4:00 am
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The No. 1 single on Billboard‘s Hot 100 chart for the year 2002 was Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me.” Of all the aggressively boring and boringly aggressive bands that visited their scourge upon us in the first half of this decade (Staind, Puddle of Mudd, Creed, etc.), Nickelback was perhaps the most palatable, but nonetheless still an abomination. Their proliferation in commercial radio was total, oppressive, and totally oppressive. It seemed that year that every single station on the dial, no matter what the format–Top 40, alternative, AC, Tejano, smooth jazz–was playing “How You Remind Me,” and to my mind this had two consequences: 1) We finally had proof that the Canadian mafia did exist, was very powerful, and worked to achieve exceptionally nefarious goals; and 2) Chad Kroeger’s maudlin frowny-face presence made this country a lot more grumbly and downtrodden that year. Six years later, I’d like to put forth my theory for making 2002 vastly more enjoyable. It involves the help of one man: Ben Kweller.

Kweller released his solo full-length debut Sha Sha on March 5 of that year. It was the perfect pop-rock album from start to finish, with few curveballs that would deem it unfit for commercial radio (unless you consider adorableness a liability)–but it went completely unnoticed by the Top 40 format. What, after all, does Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me” have that Kweller’s “Wasted & Ready” doesn’t?

Malaise? Electric guitars? Some sort of reference to alcohol abuse? A vague sense of contempt toward women? “Wasted & Ready” has all of these things, but–and here’s the important distinction–it is actually fun to listen to. Now, “fun” may be a subjective concept. So here’s an experiment:

1. Put on “How You Remind Me” and sing along. You’re pouting, aren’t you? You feel weighed down somehow; you can feel your angsty goatee coming in, right? 2. Repeat step 1, only replace the Nickelback with “Wasted & Ready.” Try it in a car, with the stereo’s volume turned way up. It’s got a nice buoyant quality that picks you up, and doesn’t you down, Chad K.-style, after a rousing sing-along.

(And, just as a sort of afterthought–how is that Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy” was the most ubiquitous song of the late ’90s, but the line “Sex reminds her of eating spaghetti” never caught on?)

For yet another straightforward guitar rock Ben Kweller track that should have made it to at least rock radio, I give you “Commerce, TX”:

What’s wrong with this song? Is the line “I got a pet hedgehog/Drinkin’ Jager all day” just too intellectual for the masses?

While those two songs conquer “How You Remind Me” in the electric guitar league, the track off of Sha Sha perhaps most deserving of radio domination is the unbearably sweet piano-driven “Falling”:

(Speaking of unbearably sweet: Ben Kweller and a baby!)

For the four minutes that this song encompasses Ben Kweller are an amazing fluke of pop music, a perfect combination of Billy Joel and Carole King, seemingly poised to save us all from the depths of muddy alt-rock forever. And yet, somehow, millions of teen girls were never given the opportunity to let themselves get caught up in the bridge-to-chorus crescendo where the drums slowly build and the violins swell and Kweller sweetly declares “Wanna hold you like never before, ’cause we’re falling and I love you more and more.”

It’s way too late now to save 2002, but here’s hoping that someday commercial radio will stop short-changing listeners so severely and give artists like Ben Kweller even a solitary spin–or, at the very least, scale down the Nickelback. For everyone’s sake.

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