"She's So Lonely" bears a heavy cornball presence that plays to the Broadway geek in us all that wishes life was as chirpy as the musicals we grew up watching. A life in which simple feelings are greatly exaggerated and everyone on the street (from the mailman to the dog walker) joins you in some huge choreographed routine that ends in a head cocked, arms sprawled pose before the song ends and everything goes back to normal with a sudden ba-dum-DUM.

With a twinkly piano playfully pushing out Morse code stop-and-start lines (think The Fray kicking it with Big Bird) and lyrics like "Your funny/ Your yummy/ You wear tops that show a little tummy", the latest from Scouting For Girls should feel toxic to adult ears, but it's to-the-point child-like honesty ("She's so lovely/ She's so lovely", repeats the bouncy hook) is far too endearing to cast off. Of course such plaintively cute sentiment would feel odd in today's world without some sardonic undertone and "She's So Lovely" finds it with the realization that this isn't one man's praise to the little charms of his partner, but more of a drooling infatuation from a distance.

The curve lands with "It's easy to tease me/ She never ever looked that pleased to see me", and the ending harmony arias and previous lines admiring her nose freckles and "the way she feels her clothes" take on a creepy aesthetic. "I don't know how we'll make it through this," the singer moans, plotting a way to get around the restraining order that orders him to stay 500 feet away, and suddenly the Broadway magic the song sparkled in before (as well as the band's name) ends up diluted in predatory horror.



DL: "She's So Lovely" (YFH)