Music Reviews

ABOVE: Worse lyrics than Black Eyed Peas? Yeah, maybe. Paolo Nutini’s sickly sweet “Candy.”

Remember when rock songs used to be about girls and drugs and partying and dragons and fast cars and politics and rebellion and stuff? Well, those days are gone.

“Give me some candy after my hug,” sings Paolo Nutini, on his new hit single, “Candy,” his weirdly nasal, never-gonna-be-Dylan voice emphasizing the awkward lameness of each word as it struggles out of his throat. We’re not sure how he managed to sing this stuff without laughing, but the song is apparently a hit (particularly in Europe, so maybe we can forgive any non-English-speaking listeners. Maybe).

In 2006, Nutini managed to sell a million copies of his debut album thanks to a MySpace push and the bubbly TV-jingle catchiness of his single, “New Shoes.” It was bad, but in an inoffensive, easy to ignore Jason Mraz/Jack Johnson kind of way. Needless to say, Nutini has gotten worse.

Now, with his 2009 album, Sunny Side Up, the Scottish singer-songwriter has concocted one of the worst songs in recent memory–the Black Eye Peas’ horrendous,  spelling-challenged, brain-dead dance anthems notwithstanding.

Obviously, we needed to make you listen to this monstrosity, so you can share our pain. (It’s kind of like when you think the milk has gone bad, but you ask someone else to taste it just to be sure).

What’s the worst song you’ve heard recently?