“I Will Buy You a Brand New Life” by Everclear
Phong: When walking down aisles of CDs and cassette tapes, there’s that distinct and wonderful pang of recognizing an artist from off the radio. If they were really popular, you could even recognize a few songs off the track list. But usually it was just seeing that one single. For me, Everclear had that key earworm song. So when I saw the album in the store, it was the first album that I had to get. Very pop in that rock way that we used to call “alternative.” I think years later, the lead singer revealed he was trying to show how easy it was to make a pop rock record. And then stumbled into the same corporate marketing web of his own making. So despite its ironic beginnings, this is probably the only album I will listen straight through without skipping.
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