Tangerine 🍊| 3 to 5 BOPS

Tangerine 🍊: 3 to 5 BOPS No. 45 (2023), features musical BOPS courtesy of Glass Animals, Kehlani, Led Zeppelin, Miley Cyrus, and Snoh Aalegra.

Ah, you know what time it is! It’s 3 to 5 BOPS time – WOO! On 3 to 5 BOPS, it’s all about brevity and sweetness… for the most part! There’s a theme/topic, 3, 4, or 5 songs, and a blurb – two paragraphs or less.  3 to 5 BOPS, hence, is a mini playlist that shouldn’t take much time to consume.  In the 45th edition of 3 to 5 BOPS (2023), we select songs that are associated with Tangerine in some form or fashion. The BOPS arrive courtesy of 🎙 Glass Animals, 🎙 Kehlani, 🎙 Led Zeppelin, 🎙 Miley Cyrus, and 🎙 Snoh Aalegra. Okay, let’s get into it! 

via GIPHY

1. Kehlani, “Tangerine” 

💿 blue water road • 🏷 TSNMI / Atlantic • 📅 2022 

“I get jealous, jealous of every sip / Pineapple water, I can taste it on your lips.” Ooh wee, 🎙 Kehlani!  The bops are endless on the 🏆 Grammy nominated R&B artist’s third studio album, 💿 blue water road.  🎵 “Tangerine” marks another elite moment.  Kehlani serves up sexy vocals and sweet lyrics.  “Tangerine” is supported by a rhythmic beat and sound production by 🎛 Happy Perez and Pop Wansel.  The backdrop isn’t earth shattering but sufficiently fits the sensual vibes. “Fireplace in wintertime / Heat me up, I’ll keep you warm,” Kehlani sings in the second verse, adding, “My sugar cane dangerous / Nectar on my face again.” Of course, the centerpiece is the tuneful chorus:  

“Raspberry tangerine, honey (I can taste me on you) 

Vanilla bean, so sweet  

And you can get it in the mornin’, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah 

When you want it, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah 

Raspberry tangerine, honey.”  

2. Glass Animals, “Tangerine” 

💿 Dreamland • 🏷 Wolf Tone • 📅 2020

“Hands, knees, please, tangerine, come on back to me / You got what I need, tangerine, do this for me,” 🎙 Dave Bayley sings in the chorus of the 🎙 Glass Animals song, 🎵 “Tangerine”. “Tangerine” appears on the same album, 💿 Dreamland (2020), where the collective scored a dominant no. 1 hit, 🎵 “Heat Waves”. “Tangerine” has received its fair share of spins streaming wise – it’s one of the more popular records from Dreamland.  In the slickly produced second track, Bayley laments adverse changes in people, including former romantic partners: “I wish I could show you more of yourself / I wish I could make you somebody else / But I left it way too late / Are you stuck in your own ways / (I’m begging).” Early on, Bayley is perturbed by what he sees. In the first verse, he sings, “As cold as an old ice cream sandwich, as focused as Mr. Miyagi / You poke at your phone posting aerial photos of you and your smoothie.” That does sound absurd and utterly meaningless, doesn’t it? Bayley sings lovely, backed by his own picturesque production, which is anchored by a sweet beat. This tangerine is quite sweet, despite the fact that the person or persons being described are sus.  

3. Snoh Aalegra, “TANGERINE DREAM” 

💿 TEMPORARY HIGHS IN THE VIOLET SKIES • 🏷 Artium Recordings LLC • 📅 2021 

“You were supposed to be my tangerine dream / My everything / It was all a fantasy / My tangerine dream.” Ah, 🎵 “Tangerine Dream,” the seventh track from 💿 Temporary Highs in the Violet Skies, the third studio album by Swedish-born and bred Iranian singer/songwriter 🎙 Snoh Aalegra (Shahrzad Fooladi).  Produced by 🎛 Compass, who makes his first appearance on the album, “Tangerine Dream” retains a familiar sound within the context of Temporary Highs in the Violet Skies.  The listener is given more of the same aesthetic, sensibilities, and vibe – a wining formula.  The 🏆 Grammy nominated musician sings coolly, calmly, and soulfully, depicting a relationship that fell well short of expectations. “Told me I’m such a fucking singer, ‘Man, you’re too loud’ / Can you land that tone, boy, can you calm down?” marks one of the more memorable moments from the first verse.  The end of the second is intriguing too:  

“The other night, I was somebody that you didn’t know 

Just ‘cause I ain’t text you back about a week ago 

And after all that crazy shit that you said to me  

How you find this personal?”

Facts, Snoh!  

4. Miley Cyrus, “Tangerine” (Ft. Big Sean) 

💿 Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz • 🏷 RCA • 📅 2015

“The sun is a giant spaceship tangerine / It shoots out rays of hopeful golden morphine / Tangerine shooting beam…” Okurrr… 🎙 Miley Cyrus is a talented musician, period. She possesses a distinct voice and has plenty of personality to go along with it. She’s also polarizing, with her most polarizing period occurring in the 2010s.  Following her controversial 💿 BANGERZ era, Cyrus released an album in 2015 that exemplifies polarization: 💿 Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz. Some like the album and others, well, not so much – depends on who you are.  One notable moment is the five-minute-plus 🎵 “Tangerine,” where Cyrus collaborates for a second time in her career with rapper, 🎙 Big Sean (🎵 “Love, Money, Party” marked the first collab). Miley produced this weird but compelling joint alongside 🎛 The Flaming Lips. Following the first verse, where Cyrus sings about this tangerine shooting beam, Sean raps reflectively in the second verse, asserting, “Jealous of the sun, wishing I could do the same / Man, but how I’m supposed rise through when shit just hold me down?” He has a point. He also adds, “Seems like everyone I know is getting married / Everyone else getting buried / Life should come with a sign saying, ‘results may vary’.” Cyrus ends “Tangerine” intriguingly: “Try to fight the sunrise but it comes for you / Love is brighter than the fiery violent truth.” Sure…   

5. Led Zeppelin, “Tangerine” 

💿 Led Zeppelin III • 🏷 Atlantic • 📅 1970

“Measuring a summer’s day / I only find it slips away to grey / The hours, they bring me pain.” Uh oh – #summer bummer! Let’s cut straight to the chase. 🎙 Led Zeppelin kicks ass and takes name, PERIOD 🤘! They are one of the greatest bands to ever live.  On their 1970 album, 💿 Led Zeppelin III, 🎙 Robert Plant and company delivered another gem, in the form of a fruit: 🎵 “Tangerine”.  Notably, “Tangerine” follows another fruity classic, 🎵 “The Lemon Song”.  “Tangerine” isn’t sexual like “The Lemon Song,” however, hehe!  

“Tangerine, tangerine 

Living reflection from a dream 

I was her love, she was my queen 

And now a thousand years in between.”  

“Tangerine” was supposedly inspired by Page’s girlfriend at the time, Jackie DeShannon (“Does she still remember times like these?”).  Clearly, the love seems to be ended. Moving onto the sound of the record, it is unique from the jump. The unique sound is owed to the use of pedal steel guitar by 🎙 Jimmy Page which adds this folksy flavoring. The rhythmic nature of the pedal steel is quite a vibe. Page penned this gem himself, though there are some questions surrounding the lyrics. The song was first recorded with 🎙 The Yardbirds as 🎵 “Knowing That I’m Losing You”.  Moving beyond songwriting, the vocals (Plant) are stellar, and the rest of the instrumentation – fat bass line (🎙 John Paul Jones), stellar drumming (the late 🎙 John Bonham), and rousing lead guitar help craft 🎵 “Tangerine” into a surefire classic 🤘. 

via GIPHY  

Appears in 🔻:  

• Led Zeppelin, “Tangerine”: FIERCE Pop + Rock 🔥🤘 No. 25 (2023) 

Tangerine 🍊: 3 to 5 BOPS No. 45 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner/The Musical Hype; Artium Recordings LLC, Atlantic, RCA, TSNMI / Atlantic, Wolf Tone; Pixabay]