"Cooler Than Me" by Mike Posner

Mike sometimes talks like a pirate.

Mike Posner's first big hit comes in the form of 12/8 dance track "Cooler Than Me". A combination of electro-pop and whiny R&B vocals gives the song a dark, hip sound. The lyrics are about a girl who thinks that she is cooler than Mike Posner.

Clearly a very cool guy.

For me, what makes this song work is the ambiguity of the verse/chorus form: the verse and chorus sound very similar, making the song feel almost like a strophic form jam, save for the contrasting bridge. The high background note at the end of the bridge (appropriately on the word "clouds") breaks up the claustrophobic, repetitive melody, giving the song a dynamic peak vocally.

After the last chorus, the music picks back up and suddenly we've got a synth solo going on. It's a little surprising, but in a good way, like you just finished eating a takeout pizza and the box suddenly turned into a bicycle. Your first thought would be, "Holy crap, what just happened", but then you would calm down and realize you had just gotten yourself a free bike.

Take-home lesson: Synth solo = Free bike

After the synth solo, the song is suddenly over. There are a lot of places the song could have gone, like back to the bridge chords or one of the earlier verses, but it just ends. Left hanging, we scream aloud in our frustration, "You know what, Mike Posner? Maybe she is cooler than you."