Contentment is not among pop music's preferred topics. Ever since the agitation of rhythm-and-blues combined with the anguish of country-and-western and exploded into rock-and-roll, popular songs have thrived on the extremes of adolescent emotion: heartbreak, jealousy, ecstasy.
"You make me so lonely, baby, / I get so lonely, / I get so lonely I could die." "Maybellene, why can't you be true? / Why can't you be true? / You've started back doing the things you used to do." "It's such a feeling that my love / - I can't hide! I can't hide! I can't hide!"
While all of this Sturm und Drang is terrifically exciting, it begs the question: What comes afterward? What happens when you're no longer lonely, when Maybellene cleans up her act and the two of you find yourselves chilling on the sofa, holding hands? Does pop music collapse under the pressure of your tranquility?
Chris Malinchak's "So Good to Me" seems to say no, it doesn't have to. Mellow yet giddy, matching Balearic synthesizers with some Marvin Gaye vocal snippets, this track is about the gratitude one feels for a sustained contentment. It finds glory in maturity. It is the sound of an endlessly re-listenable love.
"Every sky would be blue, / Long as you're lovin' me, / Lovin' me."
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