Analysis: We are back with another generational battle, and I expect to see a LOT of 1980s songs that are lingering at the bottom of the Eliminator 1000 to be facing newer fresher upstarts now that I have purged the list of most of the 1960s and 1970s.
Drive is old, and tired. But Drive is also one of those quintessential nostalgia songs for kids of the 1980s. I had the album, which I loved, on cassette tape, and I must have listened to it hundreds of times in high school. And I just thought it was all so romantic for some reason which tells you a lot about my strange psychology as a younger person. This song is not really romantic. It’s forlorn and sad hostile and kind of creepy? But man does this song bring back the memories for the elders. But, I have to say, what will listening to this song one more time on The Eliminator 1000 really do for anyone? Not a whole lot. This is a song from another time with all its early electronica in the background. But what a great great song for its time.
Speaking of creepy, this song and video are super dark. But fun! By way of background, Gracie Abrams inspired Olivia Rodrigo, which makes a lot of sense because nothing quite impresses Disney princesses as much as the daughter of a super famous movie producer (JJ Abrams is her father, and you can tell based on the really quite horrifying but fun music video – high production value anyone?). So I do have some issues with putting this song into The Eliminator 1000, with all the rank privilege going on. But nevertheless, I didn’t know all that when I started to listen to Gracie Abrams and she stands on her own two feet musically. And I really like the pure darkness and creepiness of this song, which seems to be a theme of The Eliminator. This is another of the Billie Eilish generation, and I find a lot to like here.
It’s kind of amazing that Disney hasn’t adopted Gracie Abrams as one of their pop princesses yet. Probably because she doesn’t need the funding given her background. Disney should create a dark side set of princesses. I can see it. Movies, songs, money to be made here. Gracie Abrams would lead that list. The Bottom goes right into the Eliminator at a solid #711 (1,310 more listens). Drive is a song from another era, and it is Eliminated.
Want to learn more about The Eliminator 1000? Propose a song to go in! Reply to this post, comment on the post, or Tweet (Account: @1000Eliminator) or Facebook (Account: mattnyman.com) me. Here’s the links to the song lists: the Spotify Playlist, the Youtube Playlist, the Google Sheets List, and the webpage.
