Can you imagine hearing the line “Yeah you bleed just to know you’re alive” and not singing along with all your heart? No! If you didn’t feel like doing that, then what would be the point in listening? You only get as much as you give with this song. John Rzeznik - the band’s songwriter and vocalist - sings as though he’s trying to compact all the stakes of a Rachel McAdams movie into a 3-minute song. For lack of a better term, the song is needy it demands your full emotional attention, like a kid who, mid-tantrum, opens one eye to make sure you’re still watching. Of course, as I’ve often found on this podcast, when you try to do something that pleases everyone, you end up pleasing no one.īoth the song’s initial appeal and eventual downfall was its spill-out-your-guts conviction. The record was the ultimate crossover, an epic love song whose singability just barely outweighed the features that gave it any indie cred (it’s oscillation between time signatures, its unusual guitar tuning, etc.). This makes it all the more remarkable that “Iris” was able to reach the top of modern rock, pop, and adult contemporary charts. Think of Elliott Smith fans and Celine Dion fans then as Liberals and Republicans now (I’ll let you decide whether that’s respectively or not).

The schism between pop and indie music was never more stark than during the late ‘90’s.

Phoebe bridgers bandcamp