Oh CDs from high school, what wonderful yet totally awkward things of beauty you are. On the one hand, they are sort of bathed in nostalgia, and dust, from that time period when people actually rushed out and bought CDs the first day they came out in that lovely pre-Napster/Kazaa/torrent world we once lived in. On the other hand, they are an embarrassing reminder of the things you thought were cool, the things you thought had meaning, and the things you really thought were going to help you get through one of those ever evolving high school melodramas that could shift without breaking a sweat between class periods.
So to kick off Monday, we here at the Mixtape celebrate the agony and the ecstasy of our former adolescent selves with a tribute to our newly rediscovered CD collection. Quiet study hall ain't got shit on us!
Up first, we have Nelly Furtado before she became promiscuous with her song "Turn Off the Light" off her debut album, the eye-rollingly titled Whoa, Nelly.
"Turn Off the Light," which is most likely the same thing said when Furtado's favorite current producer Timbaland tries to have sex, was one of many catchy tunes off her debut album. We would've linked to "I'm Like a Bird" but some ten years later and we're still trying to overcome the radio overplay of that tune. We love the video for "Turn Off the Light" because it's half-artsy/fartsy rolling around in the mud kind of stuff and the other half looks like an ethnically diverse commercial for Old Navy hoodies.
Next up, Erykah Badu and her headwrap tell you to get to stepping in her song "Tyrone" off her live album.
Oh Erykah Badu, you're pretentious as fuck. We'll own that right now. And you have a tendency to make the men you go with lose their goddamn mind in terms of their clothing choices (looking at you Common and Andre 3000). And we sort of admire this quality in you, especially when you first came out with "On and On" and were gleefully thumbing your nose at the musical establishment who wanted safe female stars to place on MTV.
"Tyrone" will always be one of our favorites because it showed us your sense of humor and adept ability to put on a concert while wrapped up in your mother's best bed linen. Snaps to you, honey.
Bonus, our favorite Erykah Badu video "Honey"
Next up we have The Cardigans and their tune "My Favourite Game" off their Gran Turismo album.
Oh The Cardigans and the blessing/curse that was "Lovefool." In middle school, it was hard to turn around without having to hear that song constantly played on Z-93's Top Five at 8 because it worked on two levels: if you paid attention to the music, it was an upbeat slice of 1990s pop tune goodness perfect for scene transitions for Daria or if you listened to the words, it was depressing song about unrequited love that would make for perfect scene transitions on Daria.
"My Favourite Game" and its video is still one of our favorite slices of edgy music video making as killing off your lead singer in Looney Tunes-like fashion is always sort of stunning, flawless, amazing, etc. in our yearbook.
Bonus: A similarly themed video, Madonna's "What It Feels Like for a Girl."
Lastly, Vitamin C and her bullshitty song "Graduation (Friends Forever)"
Number one, let's get this out of the way first: Saved By the Bell did "Friends Forever" first and better
And two, how is the video NOT a trailer for one of those late 1990s teen films starring Rachel Leigh Cook or Melissa Joan Hart.
Anyway, Vitamin C's career after this song was pretty much reduced to being in commercials for orange juice which is "No Surprise"
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