I don’t mind ‘Starz in Their Eyes’. In fact, I like it

Well, this is unexpected. I’m on my 71st listen of Just Jack’s ‘Starz in Their Eyes’ and I’m doing alright. I haven’t broken down, and I haven’t pushed anything sharp into my ears. I haven’t undergone an identity crisis and started talking or dressing like Jack, though maybe I should – a quick Google images search shows that the man has a really good eye for stylish, understated hoodies. I had a bath earlier and took my laptop in with me to carry on the fun (listening to the song, not searching for pictures of Just Jack – that would be a different kind of blog altogether), and I wasn’t even a little tempted to take the power cord into the bath with me.

Could I have accidentally chosen a song so inoffensive and meaningless that it has no more effect on me than plain silence? I really hope not, because – as much as I’d like it to be otherwise – this blog lives and dies on whether or not I am hurting. No one wants to read about me sitting happily at my desk, going about my day as normal, tapping my feet to a nice catchy song. You want to read that the song is tearing my soul into little pieces, that with each repetition the song’s lyrics are starting to replace my own individual thoughts until the only words I’m capable of speaking are “Behind the steel barrier, sequins and glitter/Five-inch heels still knee-deep in the litter,” and the rest.

As long as the song doesn’t stop having a chirpy, happy-go-lucky backing track and Just Jack’s best attempts at social criticism stay comfortingly toothless, I don’t see myself losing this battle. There is one chink in my armour, though: I really don’t like creepy little children voices, especially when, as in this song, they pass without any kind of explanation, because that makes a small, pathetic part of me think: “It doesn’t make sense for that to be there. No artist with aspirations of commercial success would stop his song, put in a ‘Village of the Damned’-style soundbite and start it again without any sort of context. Can I be 100% certain that the child’s voice came from my headphones?” It’s this bit here. Please, listen and reassure me:

But if all I have to deal with this week are 700 tiny shivers up my spine, I don’t think that’s so bad.

Now that I think about it, I am a little worried, too, about the actual premise of the song. Just Jack’s main concern seems to be why I want to go and put stars in people’s eyes – I think he asks the question 13 times in the song, which means that on 923 occasions just today I’ve had to respond: “I don’t know, Jack. I don’t really understand what that means, and I’m not convinced you do, either.”

Perhaps I’m just not listening closely enough. I’ve got 29 more plays this evening; maybe the song’s layers will open up to me during one of them. Wish me luck.