I’ve been struggling for months to think of something to say about Capital Cities’ “Safe and Sound.” It’s been on the Hot 100 for 36 weeks now—peaking a while back at number eight and taking its time sliding back down. Last week it was down to number 45, this week it’s back up to 28—and during that entire time I haven’t come up with enough to say about the song to fill an entire blog post. I messed around with ideas, like how the song sounds like the computer-generated sonic average of a decade’s worth of bland electro-pop, or how much I hate the pile of non sequitur pop cultural references that make up its video, but none of that seemed substantial.
But “Safe and Sound” is so flimsy that it doesn’t even provide a solid enough surface to work up much hatred. Sure, it’s a blatant copy of Phoenix and Cut Copy, but bands have been ripping them off for years, and not usually with this level of technical proficiency. Sure, the band’s entire visual angle is based on easy references to retro pop culture crossed with indie twee, but so do most of the people on Etsy.
