Reply All’s search for an ungoogleable song results in one of the year’s best podcast episodes

Photograph: George Coppock (Getty Pictures)

On Thursday, Gimlet Media’s investigative Reply All podcast—a regular fixture in our Podmass feature—dropped a new episode exploring the all-too-common phenomenon that’s making an attempt (and failing) to articulate an earworm out of your youth. Issues are simpler these days, in fact, what with Google’s omniscience and apps like Shazam, however what occurs when our present instruments fail? Is it actually attainable for a once-standard tune to someway by no means discover its approach on-line? That’s the query driving “The Case Of The Lacking Hit,” an hourlong investigation right into a ‘90s-era tune that appears to exist solely within the thoughts of the man who known as Reply All in search of assist. Fortunately, he remembers it shockingly properly.

It’s most likely finest to hearken to the episode unspoiled, however for those who want just a little extra convincing, scroll previous the under stream.

What makes the episode so gripping is the breadth of the journey, which begins with host PJ Vogt hiring a band of musicians to recreate the tune primarily based on the lyrics and melodies supplied by the caller. Vogt then takes that recording and performs it for storied music critics, producers and DJs of the period, and even Steven Web page of the Barenaked Girls, the band everybody appears to suppose influenced the monitor. No one acknowledges it.

Vogt nonetheless finds it, although. He additionally finds the person who wrote it, Evan Olson, who shares a narrative about its historical past that’s each revealing and just a little unhappy. “So A lot Higher,” which is as tacky as it’s infectious, has now made its approach on-line, and you’ll hearken to it under. Music, and we are saying this with respect, doesn’t get extra ‘90s.

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Since hitting YouTube on Thursday, it’s already picked up greater than 25,000 streams. Additionally obtainable? A spacey, stripped-down cover of it from Reply All co-host Alex Goldman. Each are worthy of your ears.

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