(photo by Lee Bey)

One of my favorite tunes from 2007 is a track by the Winnipeg band The Paperbacks. It’s called “The Architecture You Despise.” Dang, that is a great title. The lyrics—an ode to the potentially soul-killing nature of bad architecture—are written with a flaneur’s eye:

On a bus under a soft wash of dusk

You inspect your new community

Its dull lines cry out to be vandalized

Its muted tones clean and corruptible

And just when you’ve made peace with your new anonymity

You’re suddenly hemorrhaging almost everything that you believe

As the architecture you despise

Branches out

Multiplies… Well, OK. It rocks when you listen to it.

But the song got me to thinking: What’s the architecture you despise? And why? Comment below and let’s get a discussion going.

Meanwhile, The Paperbacks also have a song called “Skinny Sidewalks”:

Skinny sidewalks taper off to small ellipses and unclear stops

A hidden city comes to light on skinny sidewalks

The final strains of light that creep through broken blinds make patterns on your face..

Lacks the lyrical punch of, say, the GS Boyz’ “Stanky Legg,” but it’ll do.