“While lacing cheery melodies with poisonous lyrics has long been a successful pop music formula, it takes a particular breed of musician to elevate the juxtaposition to an art form all its own. Elvis Costello and the Smiths would probably be the best-known practitioners of this craft-- I'd even go as far as to establish a new microgenre of pessimistic pop. The likes of Quasi, Elliott Smith, and Ma”
