I love this track.  And on a lazy Sunday afternoon in January of '08, I gave it a really half-assed entry.  Hell, it was barely a quarter-assed entry.

Here's a prime example of how repetition can work in a song, although I'll admit I'm not sure how to really explain why it works.  You could just say "well, if you LIKE what's being repeated, then it's OK", but it's a little more complicated than that.  I guess you just have to make sure your repetitive patterns serve as the foundation for a song and be careful not to have them become the song.  Or, you simply have to have other crap going on during the repeated parts.  You can boogie down to the same rAwKinZezZes 4- to 8-bar groove for short while, but the song had better evolve past that at some point or it will cease to be interesting quite quickly.

You see that often amongst amateur musicians, and particularly at websites like Songfight.  There have been numerous instances of song submissions there that drew criticism for being overly redundant, usually with lines like "it doesn't go anywhere."  Sometimes that comes from "songwriter" types who are merely bitching about the song not fitting some pre-conceived format.  But usually, they're right on the money.  They truly don't go anywhere.

Here, that whole 8-bar keyboard/guitar line is almost totally consistent throughout.  But things come and go. Sounds samples appear out of nowhere.  The canned drums cut out, then come back in again.  The chorus itself is relatively short, and not repeated incessantly (ugh, excessive chorus repetitions are brutal).  There's enough going on here to not make you hit that little "next" arrow after about a minute and a half.

Actually, I think I just like what's being repeated, so it's OK.  Forget I said anything.

The original YouTube vid got yanked (shock!), but here's another.

Watch a live performance.

Wikipedia entry

This is part of a week-long series on songs I am revisiting.