Sticky Lyrics – Please Take My Earworms

A mix-up of three different albums covers.
Can you figure out what they are?

An earworm doesn’t have to be a full song. It can be a short, repetitive snippet. Even stranger, is when you have several in your head at the same time as I did recently. The three snippets that kept cycling in my head were:

• “If you feel like going hunting, we’re gonna shoot you down”
• “It’s gonna take an airplane to get me off the ground”
• “She was so good at being in trouble, so bad at being in love”

Maybe the word “gonna” connect the first two and they are all connected rhythmically? Who knows? Or, maybe it's a nam-shub, an incantation or spell that can directly alter reality?

Some psychologists casually call what I experienced “sticky lyrics” or “lyric loops”, but there’s no widely accepted separate scientific term beyond involuntary musical imagery (INMI) — it’s just a partial earworm. Whatever you want to call them they intrude on your mental soundscape as if your brain is chewing gum with them.

Can you name these songs? It took me a few days to hunt the songs down and listen to them. That’s one way to get rid of the loops: listen to the song. Other ways are discussed at 7 Simple Ways Get Rid of a Song That's Stuck in Your Head. Another way is suggested in the Mark Twain short story “A Literary Nightmare” (1876): infect someone else!

Are you ready for the answers?

• “If you feel like going hunting, we’re gonna shoot you down” - Camel Power Club – “Laïka” from the album “Club Vinyl” (2020)
• “It’s gonna take an airplane to get me off the ground” - Destroyer – “It's Gonna Take an Airplane” from the album “Your Blues” (2004)
• “She was so good at being in trouble, so bad at being in love” - Unknown Mortal Orchestra - “So Good at Being in Trouble” from the albums “II” (2013)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra also has the catchy “Ffunny Friends” song...I beg you don’t go and listen to it.