“Welcome To Your Life” by Grouplove has a raucous presentation that belies the song’s serious lyrics and message, about the wonder of the universe and our place in it, and also the awareness that while we can sometimes hit a string of good things, at other times, it can all be a hot mess.
Bananarama’s 1984 top ten hit, “Cruel Summer,” was similar– it sounded like a bouncy pop ditty, but the underlying message was one of boredom and mayhem: being left in NYC in August, when “everyone” is out somewhere else, on vacation.
To put it in context, in 1984 a bad day was summer in the City with nothing to do. In 2016 a bad day is a terrorist attack, or mega-weather disaster of fire or flood.
Bigger issues.
“Welcome To Your Life” is so 70s: a “real song” with thought and creativity. Deep, like songs were “deep” back in the day, but updated, reflecting today’s world, which is less bouncy and pop-ditty and much more sober.
“Welcome To Your Life” was written by two of the band’s members for their newborn child, a girl named Willa, but it is today’s teens and 20s and 30s that will be listening to and buying it. They will experience the song differently than we Boomers– we have a memory of a calmer, pre-digital world; one can only imagine the world that little Willa will grow up in, and what her memories will be, when she is our age.
The song is currently climbing the Alternative charts; it’s likely it will crack the top 10.
Grouplove is a 5-member American Alternative band. Four men, one woman.
They were on Jimmy Kimmel a few weeks ago, and the audience went wild.