The Smog Strangler implores you to check out all previous songs covered in this column HERE.
"Kramer in LA"
2nd Grade
from Easy Listening
2022
We don't cover many straight-up bad songs in this column, or on this blog in general (maybe this one?). That can easily be explained by the fact that good music excites me, and bad music disappoints me, and I'd rather write when I'm excited than write while I'm depressed. Still, though, I think it's worth occasionally looking at some bad music, because there's always the possibility that it can speak to the value of good music in the process.
"Kramer in LA" is a bad song. Undoubtedly the worst song on 2nd Grade's new and otherwise impeccable power-pop gem Easy Listening. This might honestly be the only bad song that 2nd Grade has ever created. That's interesting to me! Why is it bad? What does that say about 2nd Grade? What does that say about me and my own tastes?
First thing it says is that even the kings miss sometimes. I've been a fan of 2nd Grade since I first heard Hit to Hit in 2020. Their previous two albums—that one, plus 2021's Wish You Were Here Tour Revisited—both were featured in my top albums of the year, top songs of the year, and each had a song in this column. I was also the only person repping either album on that dumb Uproxx Critics Poll that Puke on Your Birthday has somehow bamboozled its way into for the past two years. Despite "Kramer in LA," I don't doubt that Easy Listening will find itself in the Top Ten for 2022 as well.
"Kramer in LA" is this languid, lazy, kinda boring and kinda off-key electric guitar strummer. This isn't the 2nd Grade that I know and love. 2nd Grade excels in these tight two-minute power-pop tunes that grab you hard with a hook and get out of dodge before you can even learn to whistle along. It's a barrage of good-time music through a slightly hazy filter of nostalgia, with a reverence with the canon and a music style that is informed by that canon while adding to it instead of copying it outright. "Kramer in LA" has nothing to grab a hold of. It's a hook-less snooze.
The second thing it tells us is that Seinfeld jokes can easily be passé if not utilized correctly. I'm not going to be the contrarian who calls Seinfeld "unfunny" or something. It's one of the most popular TV comedies in history for a reason—it's funny as hell. But I also think that just referencing a Seinfeld plot or character is sophomoric and dumb. There has to be something more, some other layer to the joke. "Kramer in LA" is just a reference to the Season 4 doubleheader "The Trip." That's all.
What I mean by "another layer" could be one of two things. The first is that "Kramer in LA" could've given some insight into the Kramer-moving-to-LA plot instead of repeating it verbatim. Had it made some clever observation or poignant insight, then maybe it would have been worth it. The second is that, since the very idea of singing a song about Kramer in Los Angeles is stupid, it would have been really funny for "Kramer in LA" to be one of the best songs ever. Like, if it was a total epic anthem of our generation, and also a song about a goddamn '90s sitcom storyline, then that would have been really funny. Alas.
(Sidenote: for a good example of what I'm talking about, see Sunny's Grannies Gone Wild bit about the candy from Seinfeld. It was multi-layered, in that, yes, it was a direct Seinfeld reference, but it was also a Seinfeld reference embedded with an insane summer-long blog bit about another TV sitcom that had literally nothing to do with candy from Seinfeld. The doubling down on the absurdity of the situation provided the necessary oomph to keep it from being just another internet meme. But now I'm getting a little off track.)
What I mean by "another layer" could be one of two things. The first is that "Kramer in LA" could've given some insight into the Kramer-moving-to-LA plot instead of repeating it verbatim. Had it made some clever observation or poignant insight, then maybe it would have been worth it. The second is that, since the very idea of singing a song about Kramer in Los Angeles is stupid, it would have been really funny for "Kramer in LA" to be one of the best songs ever. Like, if it was a total epic anthem of our generation, and also a song about a goddamn '90s sitcom storyline, then that would have been really funny. Alas.
(Sidenote: for a good example of what I'm talking about, see Sunny's Grannies Gone Wild bit about the candy from Seinfeld. It was multi-layered, in that, yes, it was a direct Seinfeld reference, but it was also a Seinfeld reference embedded with an insane summer-long blog bit about another TV sitcom that had literally nothing to do with candy from Seinfeld. The doubling down on the absurdity of the situation provided the necessary oomph to keep it from being just another internet meme. But now I'm getting a little off track.)
2nd Grade is one of my favorite working bands today, and "Kramer in LA" does nothing to change that. There's disappointment, but it's the same type of disappointment as when your baseball team's ace pitcher takes a perfect game into the eighth inning and then gives up a bloop single. Your team has still won the game 8-0 and is still playoff bound, but damn, it would've felt nice to keep that sense of perfection going for a little longer, ya know?
Probably most importantly, the very next song on Easy Listening is "Teenage Overpopulation," which is one of my favorite songs of the year so far. The bad taste in my mouth is washed out pretty quickly. In a alternate blogging universe, I would've written about "Teenage Overpopulation" today, and that would've been that. But I don't think that would've been as interesting. Sometimes we need to know what's bad in order to appreciate what's good. In that sense, I am thankful for "Kramer in LA," even though I think it's a complete and utter failure.
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