Just the prescription talking.

When a song is overplayed on Philadelphia's WXPN, you can be pretty sure all the cool was wrung out of it months ago. I have a lot of affection for Philly's all-music public radio station, which was my constant companion when I painted houses for a few years (at least once I'd had enough of Eskin onWIP), but it's the epitome of NPR culture--always smiling and slightly behind the curve.

So I was sad to learn that I was behind XPN, which was behind the rest of the world, on Glasvegas (and their single, Geraldine). I'd heard it a handful of times, and thought the band was another Coldplay-a-like. I didn't connect it with the band that played the Rock and Roll Hotel in DC a few months back--I wonder now how their cavernous sound played in that little space.

Geraldine has all the hallmarks of a radio hit--steady beat, arcing guitar notes, a simple melody. The lyrics, warbled in a marble-mouthed Scottish accent, are uplifting in an unspecific way--"I'll talk you back from the edge... Be your shepherd and your guide." Thanks; Coldplay already fixed me. But Glasvegas wryly throws in a prescription drug reference and then admits that this isn't a lover or spiritual force talking--it's just our social worker. That probably makes us listeners listless neds.