Our house was too small for hide and seek, so my brother and I invented a variation known as “hide and sock.”
The concept was as simple as you might expect for a game developed by kids aged four and six:
Step 1 – take a sock
Step 2 – hide the sock
Step 3 – have the other person find the sock
Things went swimmingly until one of us (can’t remember which one, so I’m going to blame this on my brother) hid the sock by draping it over the bare lightbulb of a lamp. Hidden so effectively by the gaudy 70s-era lampshade, the game lost its appeal and we went and did something else, leaving the sock to lie there.
Then the evening came. The house got darker. The lights got turned on. You can see where this is going. With a twitch of her nose and a furrowing of her brow, my mother interrupted the calm of the evening with a sharp, slightly worried question: “What’s that smell?”
Once the sock was peeled away like a slice of partially-melted processed cheese, we were advised that this game was perhaps not our best idea. Creative, but not our best idea.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. Creativity has always been a staple of Imogen Heap’s music. Whether it’s her use of a keyboard-controlled harmonizer (as in this song) or the use of magic gloves, she finds a way use technology to boost her creativity. To my knowledge, her creativity has not yet led to the melting of any socks.
2.Despite the disregard for instrumentation and tempo, it still manages to be catchy in an unconventional way. In fact, the catchiest part (and the part that spawned multiple remixes) comes deep into the song; the famous “mmm watcha say” section doesn’t show up until 2:53.
3. They may be a bit opaque, but the lyrics are rich in imagery. “Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth / Mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cutouts” …it’s like a Bjork-Cobain collaboration.
Recommended listening activity:
Looking under furniture for things you forgot you lost.