Tom: Remember that ‘Sweet But Psycho’ song, the one that was so catchy that everyone just ignored the really questionable lyrics?
Tim: YES, and I still listen to it frequently while feeling ever so slightly guilty every time.
Tom: Well, this is what happens when a record executive says “that was brilliant, let’s have another one that’s exactly the same please”.
Tim: And right now I am imaging that exact conversation, because that is what happens. In a good way, mind.
Tom: There’s a lot to unpack here, isn’t there? The Sid and Nancy reference, the “call me Harley” lyric that acknowledges that, yes, perhaps the stylist might have taken a bit of inspiration from a certain comic book character.
Tim: Yeah – and that’s not helped by the fact that releasing a song titled ‘So Am I’ immediately after one with a main line of “she’s sweet but a psycho” could be read in a way different from how these lyrics portray it.
Tom: And the slightly uncomfortable music-video trope of taking a conventionally attractive artist and putting her in an oversexualised school uniform with some dancers, while she’s singing about how it’s okay to be different.
It’s very much been the Difficult Second Single in terms of chart performance, although it seems to be getting enough airplay.
Tim: Well, its been in the charts five weeks now and is lurking around the lower end of the Top 20, so I’d say it could go either way.
Tom: Catchy, though, isn’t it?
Tim: Yes. It’s still no Sweet But Psycho, though.