Tournament of Hearts :: "Shake It Off"

The opening sounds give allusion to the chord progression of "Wake Up," an initiation to Los Angeles band Tournament of Hearts' single, "Shake It Off". It is potentially irritating maneuver - like staring down a stranger who looks like a slightly less attractive version of someone you used to see quite seriously - that instead rings with a more muted but still substantive power. It isn't "Wake Up," - and how could it be? - which along with "Fake Empire" will be one of the songs that will retroactively define the second Bush years as "Teen Spirit" defined the first, but it emerges as big room music, something aimed firmly at the decorative molding between the wall and the ceiling. "Shake It Off" is no think-piece, self-serious synths and guitars with a bit of chunk, a title lyric designed to turn into both chorus and edict.