Songs with "hooks" that don't work

[monsterthompson]

I might get flamed, but as much as I try I cant get into anything from Anthrax. Weird vocal melodys or keys, or something....

Yup. They have some bad/weird songs. They have a few good ones, but some of those are covers/collabs (Got the Time and Bring the Noise). The vocal lines are their weakest link for me. John Bush songs were better in that area but those songs were a departure from the classic Anthrax sound.

 

[groovaholic]

I think anybody that has to say “I’m dirty/tough/intelligent” or whatever is reliably not that thing

Like that one guy who said something really dim in an interview, then pointed to his head and said “Smart!” as if he was proud of knowing which part of the body houses the brain…

 

[Guitalia]

Yes! And Nightwish is right up there with them. Tuomas writes some great songs for NW.

As for the original post, a lot of American music doesn't hook me as much as bands from Europe, especially in the realm of symphonic metal. That kind of metal isn't typically popular in the US unless it is Trans Siberian Orchestra, and I love them too. I'm currently putting together a Christian rock band, and one of our guitarists made a statement that resonated with me.

He said he stopped going to see cover bands in local venues years ago because it seemed like every band played the same set as the band before them, and it got stale. He said it became like a "who could play it better" contest than an actual gig. I tend to agree. Those events don't hook me.

Sounds like a recap of what happened with small-combo jazz in the '50's and '60's, which similarly lost its audience.

 

[Wood and Wire]

I might get flamed, but as much as I try I cant get into anything from Anthrax. Weird vocal melodys or keys, or something....

As a teenager in the U.K. I liked it at the time - it just seemed so unlikely, and cool, that an American metal band would have even heard of 2000 AD, let alone been fanatical enough to have written a song about Judge Dredd.

It didn't hurt that they seemed more punk, than metal - as they had a very irreverent sense of humour (again, being in the U.K. I had absolutely no idea what the NFL was - it was their lyrics to the song of the same name that informed my opinion).

 

[Dincrest]

"You ain't dirty enough for hard core!" could be a great shout-along hook in the right song, but not in the song the OP posted. It definitely feels like a "right hook, wrong song." It's as if the singer is trying to shoehorn too many words into a phrase, like putting a square peg into a round hole.

Here are a couple of songs in the vein of the song that OP posted that I think are good:
(Cutt, the band in the OP, should take lessons from Eva Under Fire and Dorothy).





All that said, props to that radio station in Iowa playing Cutt. It's not often a newer/lesser-known band gets repeat airplay to the point where even a bad hook still bubbled to the top of your brain. Most of the time, it's hit songs we've heard ad-nauseum.

 

[Michedelic]

I think anybody that has to say “I’m dirty/tough/intelligent” or whatever is reliably not that thing

Or as Willie Shakespeare usta say, girlfriend doth fronting too hard.

 

[Ostie]

What hook?

 

[devnulljp]

Well, that was terrible.

 

[Gopherbassist]

Well, that was terrible.

Wasn't it though?

 

[N4860]

I'm finding it hard to believe that that song made it on the radio.

Have you not listened to the radio? There's sooo much terrible on there.

 

[groovaholic]

"You ain't dirty enough for hard core!" could be a great shout-along hook in the right song, but not in the song the OP posted

Right! Imagine it in a song by GG Allin; totally convincing…

 

[Pirate Captain]

I heard this song on the radio maybe a year ago, that kept repeating a line over and over that just wasn't up to snuff. Somebody thought it was a hook, and boy it sure wasn't. It popped into my head the other day and I wondered, could it have been as lame as I remember?

The answer is yes.


And the video is... ungood as well.

Are there any other songs that lean hard into a hook that won't set?

someone I went to grad school with was writing a "Single Mom Discovers Her Authentic Self Through Roller Derby" memoir...a LOT of people were writing things like that at the time (one guy went and became a Tibetan monk for six months...sold that book...then went on to be an amateur boxer in Alaska and sold that book too)

 

[HolmeBass]

Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry”.

Abysmal.

 

[Wood and Wire]

Right! Imagine it in a song by GG Allin; totally convincing…

He didn't play hardcore; he was a Scatman.

 

[Steve Cooke]

Yup. They have some bad/weird songs. They have a few good ones, but some of those are covers/collabs (Got the Time and Bring the Noise). The vocal lines are their weakest link for me. John Bush songs were better in that area but those songs were a departure from the classic Anthrax sound.

Nice - thanks for posting! Sounds like they were keeping up with mid 90s trends in a good way.

 

[Krisfield]

Joan Jett's third solo album had plenty of good hooks. But it didn't do that well after I Love Rock n Roll for some reason. Might have been too hooky. This lady should give it a listen. It's a real woman of rock classic.

 

[jthisdell]

Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry”.

Abysmal.

Like a root canal

 

[monsterthompson]

 

[Hot Rats]

I do not like that song.

 

[Michedelic]

Liliac got to a level of popularity for their covers, but their original material lacks barbs. They get closer to hooks than the OP song, but nothing that truly sticks. I’m aware of them because a friend occasionally sends me a track or an update. They seem to have a following so someone likes it more than I do. Here’s an example.

I hear a bit of Ronnie James in her vocals, but for that sort of thing I’m more into Castle Rat…


She’s like the love child of Dio and Ruby Starr.