Water Turns To Ice

Imperial Teen “Everyone Wants To Know” – They’ve been out of the game for five years, but Imperial Teen remain one of the most clever and underrated pop bands in the world. I mean, who else is going to write this freakishly calm rock song that combines the tragic conclusion of Titanic with the inane chatter of “Undone (The Sweater Song)”? Somehow it all fits together — the verses are full of vague concern, the chorus mixes its helplessness with gorgeousness, and the girls on the bridge are abstract and bored. Their neurotic declarations — “I never know what he’s thinking,” “I don’t really like this party” — have roughly the same emotional weight as when Will Schwartz wonders “when will help arrive?” and sings about “holding on for life” as his character slowly freezes to death. For the girls, it’s just a melodramatic metaphor, and somehow all the pain in the world is conflated and equalized, for better or worse. (Click here for the Imperial Teen MySpace page.)

Elsewhere: David Hasslehoff’s Game of Sexual Jungle Cat.