Everybody But Your Dog

December 8, 2021 2:10 PM

GAYLE sings abcdefu
posted by chavenet (18 comments total)

Via Ryan Broderick's Garbage Day newsletter today, here's a Twitter thread that gives the broad outlines of where this song came from and how quickly it spread.
posted by mhum at 2:22 PM on December 8, 2021 [5 favorites]

I'd heard this via Spotify's teen beats playlist, but I'm glad to see fun trends on Metafilter. I don't actually know if that playlist drives trends or successfully tracks them or both or if there's a better one or what--recommendations welcome--but as far as I can tell it's kept me as informed as a top 40 radio station or a long trip to the mall would.
posted by Wobbuffet at 2:39 PM on December 8, 2021 [3 favorites]

I am old: is the music video meant to evoke late 90s fashions or are late 90s fashions popular again?
posted by Anonymous at 4:38 PM on December 8, 2021

The 90s are fashionable again. It’s more often early 90s, but sweatshirts and mom jeans aren’t angry enough for this. Also many eras are fashionable simultaneously now, according to personal taste.
posted by Comet Bug at 4:49 PM on December 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

Did she record this after getting a medically negligent amount of Novocaine at the dentist?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:29 PM on December 8, 2021 [6 favorites]

Damn, culture is changing so fast it's unreal. This is very cool, thanks for posting.
posted by LooseFilter at 5:41 PM on December 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

Was expecting a different Gayle.
posted by emjaybee at 5:57 PM on December 8, 2021 [5 favorites]

Hahaha. Love the song, video, chihuahua. Want the bracelet.
Wait, how old am I anyway?! LOL
posted by alwayson_slightlyoff at 7:44 PM on December 8, 2021 [1 favorite]

abcdefu is a very appropriate refrain to hum in my head at unreasonable work requests
posted by cynical pinnacle at 6:39 AM on December 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

insufferable.

i am now old. sigh.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 7:33 AM on December 9, 2021 [4 favorites]

Dog-lomatic immunity. It's a thing.
posted by fikri at 7:36 AM on December 9, 2021 [1 favorite]

Also, thinking about this little song this morning, I'm kind of surprised that no other songwriter came up with that lyric hook before. It's such an effective play on words, and sitting right there at the beginning of the alphabet. "Let me spell it out for you: ABCDEFU". That's a GREAT break-up line, and catchy as hell, up there with "ABC, easy as 123".
posted by LooseFilter at 8:03 AM on December 9, 2021 [4 favorites]

I like the song. It's direct, it's cute, it gives the dog much-deserved exemption from her disdain, it's a sentiment we've all wanted to express at one time or another.

I love that something cool can emerge out of nowhere and make a big splash without emerging from the depths of some record label's secret maximum-consumer-appeal A&R labs.

Can she do it again? Who cares? Everyone has at least one great creative moment buried within them, one idea worthy of a breakthrough, and this is hers. Here's hoping for more.
posted by delfin at 9:19 AM on December 9, 2021 [2 favorites]

I'm more likely to have strong opinions in the Get Back thread, or celebrating Frankie Goes to Hollywood

Trying to imagine an ex-boyfriend getting entry to his girlfriend's place and recording scenes of going through her clothes, making a mess in her kitchen, taking a shower with her dog.. it just seems monstrous. Not comfortable with that, it feels like such an invasion of privacy. I dunno, maybe the guy had it coming? Yes, it's just a video. Song is catchy.
posted by elkevelvet at 12:01 PM on December 9, 2021

Yeah, this is VERY cute and fun. This might be an unpopular opinion, but it’s a lot more like what I wanted to hear out of Olivia Rodrigo’s sour.
posted by Night_owl at 4:45 PM on December 9, 2021

I hate everything new, but this is great :-)
posted by dg at 6:05 PM on December 9, 2021

I started over-thinking the video. Does this look like the house of someone with a Craigslist couch? So is it the mom's house? Does he live at home but furnished just his own room?
posted by RobotHero at 9:14 AM on December 11, 2021

I am two years away from 50 and it is embarrassing the number of recent songs I’ve downloaded (including this) that I first discovered as TikTok trends, in this case I’m learning written and performed by someone the same age as my youngest child. If it delays me hitting “get off my lawn” or “back in my day” stage for a few years I guess it’s all for the best.
posted by The Gooch at 11:40 AM on December 11, 2021 [1 favorite]