See also: The Problem With Gym Class Heroes and Adam Levine's "Stereo Hearts"
The 2012 London Olympics are a month away, but I'm not as interested as I was for Beijing 2008. If London's opening ceremony has a TARDIS float, I'll be interested. To tie in to the Olympics, Gym Class Heroes -- the hip, young McDonald's commercial extras with instruments -- got U.S. Olympic gymnast John Orozco for their video for "The Fighter."
It was likely inspired by the 2010 boxing movie with the same name. However, it sounds like they settled for any athlete that was available for the video. Nothing against Orozco or gymnastics; anyone who can hold themselves up with their arms is Superman compared to me.
The problem with "The Fighter" is that it calls back to a similar song from last year, Bad Meets Evil's "Lighters" featuring Bruno Mars. It follows a similar format of rapping verses and singing choruses over a low-tempo rhythm. The choruses even sound alike.
The difference between the two is that "Lighters" had brilliant rappers over a mediocre singer, while "The Fighter" has a mediocre rapper over a brilliant singer. I usually side with prolific songwriter Ryan Tedder over Bruno Mars, but it sounds like he swiped Bruno this time.
If the Olympics still used a 10-point system, I'd give this song a two.
Gym Class Heroes perform at the H20 Music Festival on Saturday, June 9, at the Cotton Bowl.
