Fluxblog
September 1st, 2016 10:49pm

So Help Me Jesus


Toadies “Possum Kingdom”

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I’m with Arianna on this one. “Possum Kingdom” is also my favorite song from the perspective of a vampire, my favorite song that makes the phrase “do you wanna die?” sound like a flirt, and my favorite song about seducing someone with the promise of immortality. And look, “Possum Kingdom” doesn’t have much or any competition in any of those categories, but even if it did it would almost certainly still be the best.

On a surface level, “Possum Kingdom” is a generic alt-rock song, but as much as it is a very representative example of the form, it also feels like an outlier. Alt-rock rarely had this sort of seedy swagger, and generally stayed closer to vaguely morose grandiosity or a stoned, vaguely ironic or shrugged-off version of “rocking out.” The Toadies’ sound isn’t quite ~sexy~ but it’s definitely sexual, and the song is one of very few notable mid-‘90s alt-rock hits to be sung from the perspective of a person who believes they are sexy. (Low self-esteem was very big back then.) There’s a heavy touch of black comedy to the lyrics, but the music doesn’t totally undermine the character’s predatory horniness, and the result is a bit like a ‘90s version of Twilight with Trent from Daria cast as the hunky teen vampire.

Buy it from Amazon.

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