You’re So Good To Me: Why “Hot” May Be The Perfect Pop Song

Screencap from a cup of hot soothing chinese tea

Bridge—guitar only

Now all other instruments drop out except for one picked electric guitar. Avril’s voice here is soft; she can’t yell, and she’s miked closely enough so you can hear her pronounce the “t” in “gently.” The harmony that appears in the answering lines is exquisite and minor-tinged. Even at the end of the bridge, when she vocalizes to the chords of the chorus hook, it’s appropriate and not overstated. I can’t detect any Auto-Tuning at this point, which is where I’d expect it, since Avril has to break her voice to jump between notes.

Kiss me gently
[add harmony]
Always I know
[add drums and bass]
Hold me love me
Don’t ever go [into vocalizing over chorus hook]

Chorus 3

At this point, we’re in the home stretch with a double chorus, and Avril adds a higher vocal on top, basically ad-libbing above the regular chorus.

You make me so hot
Make me wanna drop
You’re so ridiculous
I can barely stop
I can hardly breathe
You make me wanna scream
You’re so fabulous
You’re so good to me

Chorus 4

You make me so hot
Make me wanna drop
You’re so ridiculous
I can barely stop
I can hardly breathe
You make me wanna scream
You’re so fabulous
You’re so good to me
Baby Baby
You’re so good to me
Baby Baby

You’re so good. . .

Screencap from a cup of hot soothing chinese tea

The song ends here as the guitars fade, leaving a drum machine-sounding outro.

There’s something about the sharpness of the vocal that cuts through the backing track while still allowing the music to boom. The production is top-notch, done by “Dr. Luke,” aka Lukasz Gottwald, who also played bass, guitar, and co-wrote the song. He also produced Paris Hilton’s hit “Nothing In This World” (which is another song that I can’t stop listening to despite wishing the artist would self-immolate). Mixing is by Tom Lord-Alge, who has been in the business for quite a while and has done a lot of catchy stuff including Vertical Horizon and Fountains of Wayne’s biggest hits.

Every sound on the song is carefully crafted and perfectly executed, but that’s not always enough to explain why I’ve listened to this song over a hundred times during the writing of this piece. Shoot, every song in the Top 40 is cross-format-focused to break on radio and I hate nearly all of them. “Hot” not only has the professional product, it has a simplicity, an honesty, and above all a positivity that makes it fresh and entertaining with every listen.

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