Elle King, "Exes and Ohs" (2015)

So this song, “Exes and Ohs.” It's pretty catchy, and the video is funny.

But there's this one couplet that I stumble over every time: “Now there's one in California who's been cursing my name/'Cause I found me a better lover in the UK.” There are SO MANY little things that bug me about this.  Here's some insane nitpicking:

1. IT DOESN'T RHYME, DAMMIT. Granted, this song is rife with partial rhymes, but this one just clangs to me.
2. There's “one” in California: not grammatically wrong or anything, but it sounds awkward, since this is only the second “one” the song mentions.
3. The use of the present perfect progressive tense there is really strange. So, what've you been up to lately? Oh, nothing much; I've just been cursing this chick's name. Same ol' same ol'.
4. Do people do much cursing of people's names these days? I suppose I'm in glass houses territory if I criticize people for using archaic phrasing, but, again, in the context of the song it just sounds comically bizarre, if you picture it actually happening.
5. “In the UK” sounds like a weirdly specific sort of evasiveness. Yes, he's in the UK: in other words, in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. But which one? Hmm...let's change the subject.
6. Not just evasive but also sort of weirdly childish, like a kid who's just learned that a cool way to talk about Britain is to call it “the UK,” and shows this knowledge off my using the term in a slightly odd way that an older person wouldn't.
7. Is he cursing her name because she found a better lover specifically in the UK? Is this some kind of national pride thing?

Still a fun song, though!