For all its despairing, apocalyptic faults, 2020's been a pretty good year for music—we’ve heard killer albums from Fiona Apple, Pearl Jam, and Kesha, not to mention all the good tunes we’ve chronicled in A-Sides. That said, 2020's musical legacy might belong not to the hitmakers, but to their children.
First, the 4-year old daughter of English songwriter Tom Rosenthal gutted us with a tune about doomed, lovestruck dinosaurs, and now Jolee, the daughter of Lisa Rieffel, a member of L.A.’s H. Kink, is here with a song that, while much lighter in tone, is every bit as imaginative. It’s called “I Wonder What’s Inside Your Butthole,” and it is perfect.
So compelling are the song’s intergalactic themes—astronauts and aliens are, in this imagining, possible residents of the anal cavity—and driving melodies—you believe it when she declares she “always wants to know”—that a number of fans have shared their own covers and remixes.
The most notable, perhaps, is the duo of Ben Lee and Josh Radnor (the latter of How I Met Your Mother). Rieffel shared their cover via her Instagram, where you can sway along to their earnest, harmony-laden take on the soon-to-be-classic.
Also of note is this cover by Jade Lilitri of beloved emo outfit Oso Oso, who acknowledges that though his guitar-driven rendition isn’t as good as Jolee’s, “covers never are.”
Another impressive cover comes via songwriter Megan Jean Francoeur, who brings a rich, full-throated yearning to this song about buttholes and what could be inside of them.
Others, meanwhile, figured that all the song needed was a little production. For example, here’s “I Wonder What’s Inside Your Butthole” as an ecstasy-fueled club track.
It’s, of course, far too early to declare “I Wonder What’s Inside Your Butthole” the song of the summer, but, guess what, we’re stuck inside and bored out of our skulls and staring at the ceiling at 3 a.m. as existential questions fall on us like acid rain, so we’re going to do it anyway. We’d much rather think about the aliens in our asses than what the economy is going to look like in five months.
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