New Good Song: Easy Way Out by Gotye

Here's a new good song -- "Easy Way Out" by Gotye

After putting out what so far has been 2012's best new good song, "Somebody That I Used To Know," Gotye has an automatic audience for his follow-ups, the latest of which is the two-minute ditty "Easy Way Out." It's not as good as "Somebody," but then again, what is? Upon a few listens, though, "Easy Way Out" turns out to be quite good, and the clever video, which is both funny and sad, helps.

When an artist reaches the top of the charts for the first time, he has a built-in audience for follow-ups, an opportunity that artists sometimes squander, or perhaps don't want to seize. Example: "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter, which was the No. 1 song of 2006 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart. Americans have not shown interest in his subsequent output. Another example: "Fireflies" by Owl City.

Did these acts flail after their big hits because they really did not have any other good songs? Because I have a "cream always rises" view of music, and the world, my suspicion is that this is the case, although surely there can be other factors, such as lack of marketing support, or even lack of desire to achieve stardom. After all, it's hard to believe that someone could create such a masterful song as "Fireflies" and then find himself unable to put out anything else that's good.

Sometimes I am puzzled by the public's indifference to artists who follow up great songs with other great songs. Example: Vanessa Carlton, who had her biggest hit with her debut, "A Thousand Miles" in 2002. As you can see for yourself on her discography, her subsequent releases didn't chart as high (i.e., weren't as widely perceived to be good), but in fact they were just as good, all the way through "Nolita Fairytale," after which everything has been bad. The public's swift cooling off to Vanessa has always puzzled me. Not sure what the missing variable is.

Anyway, I will be curious to see where the road leads for Gotye. My inclination is to suspect, at the very least, conflict with his record company about artistic direction. I have found the couple of non-"Somebody" songs, like "I Feel Better," to be good. There's real talent there, and that should mean new good songs to come.