On a recent edition of their podcast, my colleagues at Comics the Blog made reference to the Semisonic 20th Century Masters collection, which contains "that one song you know, and that other song you should know." You've surmised that the former is the classic ode to life as a fetus, "Closing Time." I believe latter is this one, which I always thought deserved to be a hit. It's catchy as all hell and a bit less specialized than "Closing Time."
That's probably why it didn't take off. Back in the late 90's, you got one chance to make an impression, and few acts were given a chance to flourish. Once you were pigeonholed as "the 'Closing Time' guys," that was your thing. Your song would play over the final montage of any dramedy to add weight, or the closing credits of any vaguely somber movie. "Chemistry" is just a cool song about growing up and figuring out romance, and quite honestly its lyrics are among the most clever of its era. And like I said, catchy as hell. You should know this one.
That is indeed the song I meant! I knew the title, but figured that none of the other listeners but you would, and decided to make a bit of a joke out of it. It's probably my favourite Semisonic song (though "Act Naturally" is amazing too, and has such brilliant backup vocals in the chorus that it floors me every time), and it's always bugged me that if anyone knows it, it's probably as "that song from the bus ride date montage in 40 Days and 40 Nights," which probably means that nobody knows it at all. It's such a perfect pop song that suffers only for not being released before "Closing Time," but hey, at least that means people can discover it NOW.
ReplyDeleteA side note: People almost definitely don't know Dan Wilson, Semisonic's lead singer and songwriter, but they SHOULD, even if it's only as the dude who co-wrote three songs on Adele's last album, including her first UK #1 single.
Basically, it's been a decade since Semisonic called it quits and I'm still angry Dan Wilson doesn't get the public accolades he deserves. I'm also upset people love Adele but shit talk Taylor Swift even if both are for the same reason (songs about BOYS!), but that's another conversation entirely.