The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 944

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Number 944 - Wheatus

Number 944

Wheatus

"A Little Respect"

(2000)

Genre:Alt Punk

What a cool song (shortest ever response you will ever get from me ~heh)

Wheatus is a showcase for the songs of singer/guitarist Brendan B. Brown, who has a taste for catchy, guitar-driven pop/rock, a gift for gab, and a snotty attitude. "Teenage Dirtbag," Brown's anthem for high school losers (featured, appropriately, in Amy Heckerling's film Loser), which combines humiliation with humor and even a happy ending, is carried along on familiar riffs, a hooky chorus, and smart-aleck lyrics. And that's the story for most of the songs on this album, though Brown reveals broader experience in a heartfelt cover of the Erasure hit "A Little Respect" and sounds less like a high school student than an aspiring rock star impatient with his record company publicist on "Hey, Mr. Brown."

"Whatever their nominal subjects, from the perils of obsessive romance ("Love Is a Mutt From Hell") to a white boy's hapless attempts to acquire hip-hop culture ("Wannabe Gangstar"), Brown's songs appeal because of their peppy pop/rock energy and the clever lyrics. This is a guy who refers more than once to Iron Maiden but whose music is more suggestive of Cheap Trick (especially on "Leroy," which recalls "Surrender"), and all the better for it. Bassist Rich Liegey, who left the band before the release of this record, has one song, "Punk Ass Bitch," that shows he's no slouch as a songwriter either and makes you wonder what his next project will be. But Brown is more than capable of handling the load, and with any luck this relatively short album will be the beginning of a great career." ~ [William Ruhlmann]

For Iron Maiden see Number 755 & #975
For Cheap Trick see Number 651

What does Rolling Drone think about Wheatus?

In "Teenage Dirtbag," a geek-fantasy single from the geek-fantasy movie Loser, the whining narrator's secret cool self is rewarded when his dream girl confesses that she, too, has an inner dirtbag. And so it goes throughout Wheatus' trim ten numbers of straightforward fast-paced pop with rough thrash edges. Singer Brendan B. Brown's nasal voice is both sexy and annoying; even this self-described jerk deserves better from the badly behaved females in both "Sunshine" and a beautiful cover of Erasure's "A Little Respect." Brown also sees right through the male poseurs in "Truffles" and "Wannabe Gangstar." These self-deprecators major in female trouble and display a musical supercompetence that strongly indicates there's a rock god behind Brown's horn-rimmed glasses. If nothing else, Wheatus prove that the snarky rock & roll nerd with more chops than the jocks was not just a mid-Nineties phenomenon. ~ [Source:RS 850]

Rolling Stone Top 500 Songs ranked this song at Number (Nope, They hated it) and the Album ranked at Number (Nope, didn't know it was out yet)

This song has a crowbarred rating of 53.7 out of 108