11. Dum Dum Girls – Jail La La
„Jail La La“ continues the Girls‘ trajectory towards the „pop“ side of the noise-pop spectrum.
Those new dimensions also reveal Dee Dee’s lyrical skill, as she details the protagonist’s mental transition throughout the song. She doesn’t know how she landed in the pokey, she can’t remember many phone numbers off of the top of her head, and she’s surrounded by grotesques in her holding cel. But the time the chorus hits, the observations and rationalization drop out, and she’s left with a time-honored girl-group ache for someone to „Tell her baby/ Or else he won’t know I need saving.“
It’s a compelling take on someone’s thought process when trapped in such a non-negotiable situation– from complex details to broad pleas– and it showcases Dee Dee’s ability to fuse the more threatening and noisy aspects of new wave and post-punk with the teenage heartache of girl-group pop.
--
Gewöhnlich glaubt der Mensch - wenn er nur Worte hört - es müsse sich dabei doch auch was denken lassen.