Green Tee Readings

I think this is my last post about Who Killed Amanda Palmer, which has managed to grab my thoughts in a way that other albums haven’t lately. Having spent the last two posts noting and praising the album as a whole, I think it’s time a bit of specificity was tossed in.

“Oasis” is, at the moment, my favorite song of the album. The upbeat piano, the teenager-ish delivery of the vocals, and the really short length might make someone think that it’d be a lightweight song, which would be a complete mistake. The fragility that I mentioned in the last post is here in the flip way the girl handles rape, abortion, and a betrayal by best friend.

The girl’s boyfriend is hardly around in the song, whether because he’s not really there for her or if she’s not able or willing to let him be there we don’t know, and he’s completely upstaged by Blur and Oasis. The girl is hanging on by a thread and putting up a cheery, brave front. The fallout on all of this will just be incredible, because we all know we shouldn’t put our life in the hands of a rock and roll band.

For all the poppy, bouncy goodness of the music, this is a really sad song. It’s also beautiful, tight and perfect.

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