Last year, singer songwriter Regina Spektor released a song that became an instant favourite of mine.

You see, I’m a big fan of good word-play or a clever turn of phase, this time it’s just a lyric got straight to the heart of something.

Musically it might not be your cup of tea, it’s not all that different from the sort of thing Alanis Morissette puts out. But unlike Ms Morissette who once released a song called “Ironic” wherein she proved that she didn’t actually understand what irony was at  all, (which is itself is quite ironic), Ms Spektor knows her  subject matter.

“Laughing With” is a song that at its core is one of ad-land’s  holiest of grails, an insight.

She’s just making an observation about society’s views on religion and faith. And the human condition. That it’s ok to take the piss when everything is going well, but placed into a situation that’s gone seriously pear-shaped our attitude changes somewhat.

Ok, it’s not rocket science, and she’s not going to trouble the Pulitzer board with this, but is that the purpose of a pop song anyway?

If this were a bit of advertising and if it got peoples’ attention, made them take a second look and sold lots of product I’d say it’s more than done its job. Look, I know music is subjective, but then so is art, and design, and advertising, but if we could build all our creative around an insight, how much greater the chance we’d connect with our audience.

“Laughing With” ended up going to a very respectable number 14 in the US singles chart, which might suggest I’m not the only one who heard it and thought “yeah that’s what I think too”.

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Tags: dave scott, music, opinion, regina spektor