While Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco have done many surprising things in the time since they’ve been “an item” (the most surprising thing still being that they’re “an item” at all), perhaps the most unforeseen “act of love” they’ve committed thus far (apart from Blanco gifting a queso bath) is covering Cake’s 1998 hit, “Never There” (a remake that serves as the lead single from their deluxe edition of I Said I Love You First, I Said I Love You First…And You Said It Back). Okay, maybe “covering” is too strong a word, but still, there are many heavily borrowed elements on their latest single, “Talk,” not least of which is the musical backing and Blanco singing, “I need your arms around me/I need to feel your touch” (one imagines the band was given some form of compensation for this level of lyrical and musical sampling, but then, who knows?).
After reciting that John McCrea-penned part, Blanco then tries to be “tongue-in-cheek” with the additional line, “I’m feeling kinda lonely and I really wanna…talk.” That pause between “wanna” and “talk” ephemerally leading listeners to believe he might say “fuck,” the more obvious “rhyme,” of sorts, with “touch.” But no, this is meant to be romantic. And the rule of romance in mainstream pop culture still insists that sex—at least of the carnal sort—can’t be a part of it (even though the romance phase of a relationship is the time when sex is at its peak). So it is that Blanco plays up the “sweet” angle of the track even more thoroughly in the accompanying Tony Yacenda-directed video (or “documentary,” as Blanco would like to have it billed from the way he talks to Gomez about filming some “behind-the-scenes”-style footage for their grand outing). This includes opening the video with a scene of him talking to a limo driver about how his “fiancée” (a word that comically downplays Gomez’s stardom level) has “never been to the prom or anything.” Hence, wanting to give her the “full experience.”
This full experience includes an excursion to the SouthBay Pavilion (a stone’s throw of a drive from Long Beach, for some geographical frame of reference), where not only are Gomez and Blanco gawked at and filmed as they walk along, but they also get to go into a Glamour Shots-esque portrait studio and have their photo taken (complete with the “cheesy” backdrop) in their prom attire. On a side note, Stranger Things’ Starcourt Mall has nothing on SouthBay Pavilion’s offerings. On another, this “little outing” feels a lot like something Lana Del Rey would do (with Gomez very much being on the Del Rey tip of late, if the “Sunset Blvd” video is an indication).
As the duo goes through the photo-taking process in their respective prom getups, certain pieces of their dialogue are played over the chorus—including Blanco asking the cashier how much it is and her replying, “$997.76” (even someone as “flush” as Blanco has sticker shock over a number like that—but hey, these Glamour Shots-type businesses have to stay in business somehow, don’t they?). Afterward, Gomez’s request for a mall corn dog seems like chump change in comparison. And besides, Blanco has already made it abundantly clear that nothing’s too good for his “baby.” Or, as the song suggests, his “mama.”
Leaving the mall in the limo once again, Gomez is somehow shocked that Blanco has a final “surprise” for her: actually going to a prom he orchestrated somewhere in Santa Monica (a rather long drive from Carson if there’s traffic [which there always is]). It’s at the dance that Blanco, for the sake of the video, opts to cut out the final line of the song where he actually does say “fuck” to rhyme with “touch” (as in: “I need your arms around me/I need to feel your touch/I’m feeling kinda lonely/And I really wanna…fuck”). Even though that would have been rather appropriate considering the trope about horny teenage guys at prom going to rapey lengths to “deflower” their date. Instead, however, the video opts to conclude on a schmaltzier note than the idea of Blanco taking her back to some hotel. In lieu of such a finale, Yacenda provides a scene of the two holding each other while dancing, during which Blanco says, “Hey, you know you’re my best friend, right?” Gomez returns, “You’re my best friend, baby.”
Whether or not the two were trying to remake the meaning behind Cake’s clingier, more toxic “Never There” (though one doubts it) is perhaps beside the point. What is relevant is that they’ve reinvented the musical earworm for a new generation. A generation that will likely never even know that Cake’s former drummer, Pete McNeal, was convicted of child molestation and sentenced to fifteen years to life back in 2014. Though, to be fair, he wasn’t the band’s drummer when “Never There” was released, so the association isn’t quite so “ick.” No, instead, Gomez and Blanco create an ick factor entirely all their own for what is now “Talk” (not to be confused with the Coldplay song of the same name or Charli XCX’s “Talk Talk”).
[…] Not on Anyone’s Bingo Card: Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco Rebranding Cake’s “Never There” As… […]