Aberfeldy, "Uptight" (2006)

You ever talk to some imbecile who's totally not understanding where you're coming from, and so you get more and more irked, but not rudely so, and he sees this, and he's all like, "Dude, don't get pissy!" As if he's not the one who's given you reason to get pissy? And then he usually busts out a "Hey, don't be so uptight! You gotta relax, bro!" Which now drives you into a deeper and more explicit fury, though you realize that this makes him seem as if he's right when he says you're being uptight? Yeah. And don't get me started on people who offer "Oh, he's so tightly wound, he needs to get laid..." as a cure-all for everything.

Um, wait, am I seeming a bit on edge right now? I'm not...it's just...oh, never mind.

You wouldn't think I would be predisposed to like this song by Scottish band Aberfeldy, who are often compared to Belle and Sebastian (though Camera Obscura might be nearer the mark), which does insists that I just need to relax. (The band's debut album Young Forever featured the tweetastic "Love Is An Arrow," but this, from the sophomore Do Whatever Turns You On, is possibly even better.) But the sentiment -- "There comes a time in everybody's life when you gotta do or die/Oh baby, please don't be uptight/It's up to you, do what you wanna do, you can tell the truth or lie /Come on baby, you might as well dance all night" -- is so cute and good-natured that it will hear of no resistance. There are bleepy keyboards. There is boy-girl duetting. There is a melody straight out of 70s soft rock. There are handclaps, for crissakes, and a couple of "yeah yeahs!" If I ever had a stick up my butt, and I swear to God I didn't, I don't anymore.