999,945: Free Credit Report Band - Bike

Sometimes something great can also be a harbinger of bad things to come. Such is the case with "Bicycle." The Free Credit Report Band, known for such hits as "I Married My Dream Girl (Too Bad I Didn't Know That Her Credit Was Bad)" and "F-R-E-E That Spells Free (Credit Report Dot Com Baby)," released "Bicycle" after a long hiatus, during which time their hits became of a fixture of the American airwaves, and by airwaves, I mean the unsold television advertising time that networks reserve for commercials featuring 800 numbers and websites offering products that require you to pay for months on end for something you really don't need. While "Bicycle," with it's charmingly lo-fi acoustic guitars. slightly out of tune marimbas and achingly catchy hook ("f to the r to the e to the e") certainly lived up to the band's previous work, it also represented a turn toward the self-referential that has resulted in their disappointingly inward-looking recent releases.

Every since "Bicycle", the free credit report band has put out song after song with jokes and references to their earlier songs. Whether this was motivated by some kind of postmodernist artistic imperative, or by the executives at FreeCreditReport.com's desire to get a lot of people's credit card numbers on file, it seems to have sapped the creative life out of the music. The hooks just aren't there anymore, spinning around in our collective heads like the wheel on the bicycle that the lead singer had to buy because gas prices were 'blowin' up sky high' at the time of this single's release.