hear here

This Version of Barenaked Ladies’ ‘One Week’ Replaces Every Instrument Sound With ‘It’s Been,’ Which Is Great If You Never Knew the Rest of the Words Anyway

WE Day Vancouver
Photo: Andrew Chin/Getty Images

If you know Barenaked Ladies, you know that one song of theirs, and if your life has been providential enough that you do not know them, well, you still know that one song, the sickeningly catchy earworm sound trap “One Week.” “One Week” is of course a bad song, popular because it has the kind of opening hook hardwired to subliminally sell you soda and candy. Intrigued by its power, a Soundcloud user undertook an experiment, querying, what if you reduced “One Week” to just the first notch of said hook, the upward swing of “It’s been”? Does the experience of the song become more or less of a rending sojourn? Rather than reduce “One Week” to a one-second snippet, the mix replaces every use of an instrument with that iridescent present perfect salvo. The excruciating result is something out of a Tig Notaro set, a complete thesis on the teasing, trying push-and-pull of repetition and delayed gratification. Listen below; in two days, we’ll say we’re sorry.

Hear BNL’s ‘One Week’ With Way More ‘It’s Been’