#7. King Princess - Ohio
Ah, we've reached the portion of the Countdown where we hit songs that could have potentially landed in the top spot. The songs that have definite "OMG" moments, where I sit and listen to them on repeat and go "wow, this could be the one". To her credit, there really wasn't much King Princess did wrong for me this year. She is definitely a fascinating specimen, and I admire the heck out of the fact that she plays a lot of the instruments and wrote all of the songs on her debut record, Cheap Queen. It's always enjoyable to find popstars doing things like that, although to just peg KP as "pop" would be underselling her music. The record has jazz, R&B and even elements of funk mixed throughout, almost like a late-blooming version of Amy Winehouse without the soulful voice. The initial release record made it to #88 on the Billboard 100 and #18 on the US Alternative, despite not charting any singles. I honestly never would have listened to the record if it hadn't been re-released as a deluxe edition with six bonus tracks, including our #7.
And, of course, how else would I have found the song if I wasn't just looking for songs about, you know, Ohio. It's almost silly how many great songs center around my home state (Neil Young, Bowling for Soup, and Pretenders immediately spring to mind), but I was just mulling through Spotify when I found this one. I suppose it was a lucky find, but our local alternative station picked it up a little bit later and I was able to jam out to it on the radio as well. Double score!
"Ohio" is easily the most unique song on the record, and it's not even close. In fact, it is deceptively unique in that absolutely none of the other 17 songs sound anything like it. Even her voice has a totally different feel to it, which I like a lot more than on the rest of the record. There's a rattly, detuned guitar opening that leads into KP singing about a female lover who is far away from her. It's a two parter song - the unplugged opening 1:48, and then the greasy, grimy, distorted madness that follows. Easily the best 30 seconds of music all year for me when the guitars kick in. Lyrically the song is decent, but man, that drop is where it's at. Musically, the entire song kicks butt, and that's all I needed to carry me through the difficult early months of the pandemic. With 3.4m streams on Spotify and another 600k views on the video, I can definitely say I am not alone. The video is split into two parts - the opening half is her in black and white singing to a microphone, the 2nd is her in color playing live and shredding. It's awesome.
Favorite Line: "so what's good, is it me or is it you?"
Title: Ohio
Artist: King Princess
Album: Cheap Queen (Deluxe Edition)
Previous #7s
2019. Cold - Shine
2018: Jukebox the Ghost - Everybody's Lonely
2017: Cold War Kids - Can We Hang On ?
2016: Justin Timberlake - Can't Stop The Feeling!
2015: Matty Mullins - More of You
2014: Impending Doom - Hellhole
2013: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - If You Didn't See Me (Then You Weren't On The Dancefloor)
2012: One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful
2011: The Airborne Toxic Event - All I Ever Wanted
2010: Iyaz - Replay
2009: This Ending - Machinery
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