Fever 🤒 | 3BOPS

1. Dua Lipa & Angèle, “Fever”

🎵 “Fever” • 🏷 Warner • 🗓 2020 

“I’ve got a fever, so can you check? / Hand on my forehead, kiss my neck.” The more 🎙 Dua Lipa, the better! On the brief 🎵 “Fever”, she is joined by Belgian musician 🎙 Angèle. In addition to Dua Lipa and Angèle as writers, there’s a team comprised of 🎙 Caroline Ailin, 🎙 Ian Kirkpatrick, 🎙 Jacob Kasher Hindlin, and 🎙Julia Michaels. Kirkpatrick produces giving them a sleek backdrop to paint over.  The sound is fresh and modern.

Dua Lipa gets off to a great start, unleashing matters of the heart.  “Before you came around, I was doing just fine,” she asserts on the first verse, before she begins to ‘come down with that fever,’ highlighted on the chorus.  It’s not a literal fever of course, but rather, a love fever.  Angèle contrasts on the second verse, as well as the bridge, singing in French, which feels fitting on a love-centric joint like this one.  They join forces after the Angèle bridge, with Dua leading the charge.  Also, Dua contributes to the French lyrics on the outro.  All in all, “Fever” is a fun, well-rounded pop joint.

2. Drake, “Teenage Fever”

💿 More Life • 🏷 Cash Money • 🗓 2017

“I met someone new last night and we kicked it / And I’m going back there tonight / And you know what’s on my mind, this time.” 🎵 “Teenage Fever” represents one of 🎙 Drake’s smoother moments on his playlist-album, 💿 More Life.  Drizzy sings about his feelings about her.  “Out of body / That’s just how I feel when I’m around you, shawty.” Clearly, he’s infatuated, feeling ‘some type of way’ to the point he sings, “This shit feels like teenage fever.”  Worth noting, he’s not physically sick, if you didn’t already gather that.

Also appears on 🔽:

🔗 🎧  Sweet 6Teen: 16 Teenage Songs

🔗 🎧  These 11 Sick Songs are Sickening

3. The Black Keys, “Fever”

💿 Turn Blue • 🏷 Nonesuch • 🗓 2014

🎵 “Fever” serves as a highlight from 💿 Turn Blue, the 2014 studio album by the 🏆 Grammy-winning rock duo, 🎙 The Black Keys. Set in a minor key, the “fever” of which 🎙 Dan Auerbach speaks is potentially ‘deadly,’ at least figuratively speaking: “Fever cause I’m breaking / Fever got me aching / Fever why don’t you explain? / Break it down again / Fever got me guilty / Just go ahead and kill me…”

If you didn’t gather the reference to a relationship from the onset, it is later confirmed poetically: “Now if the cold, pale, light in your eyes / Reaches those horizon lines / You know not to leave her…” Obviously love can be a five-letter word, but “Fever” is a different five-letter word – GREAT.  By the way, the lushness of that last chord is awe-inspiring (and intentionally detuned).