![]() I’m not sure what’s subtle about “outrun my gun” - or the verse in which the protagonist appears to shoot his dad.īut acknowledging that the song is dark is about as far as most critics who have reviewed “Torches,” Foster the People’s debut album, have come to engaging with “Pumped Up Kicks.” Yet, when that interview went up on the NPR website, the introductory text reduced the song to “a breezy summer jam with a subtly sinister edge.” He has said that he wrote the song because he’s been troubled by school shootings, telling, for instance, NPR Music’s “World Cafe” that he wondered “what would it be like to be inside of a kid’s head that’s a teenager and is basically losing his mind.” Mark Foster, the group’s Cleveland-bred frontman, did not respond to an email request to address some questions raised by the song.īut in interviews, when the song’s dark subject matter has been an issue, he’s seemed able to satisfy questioners by referencing Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood.” It’s on a mostly sold-out tour right that lands Thursday at the Fillmore in San Francisco.Īnd the tune has been top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart since Aug. ![]() The band has gone from nowhere to playing Lollapalooza this summer. “Pumped Up Kicks” has been very, very good to Foster the People, the L.A.-based trio who released it as their first single. I don’t for a moment fear that my kids or yours are one ill-considered pop song away from going bad, but I’d just rather not have their environment include a school shooting treated with all the gravity of bubble-gum pop - with whistling. ![]() But after looking closely at the song’s lyrics and listening to it many extra times, I have come to agree that this song is more deserving of a push away than the warm embrace it has mostly received. ![]()
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