VANYALAND: The V List: Five of our favorite homegrown tracks from January 2025
“Jordan Duffy, ‘Not Your Dream Girl’
Movie endings can often be so unrealistic that they feel downright alien — and Jordan Duffy took that concept and ran with it. The Los Angeles-based, Worcester-raised artist has released her new song “Not Your Dream Girl,” a response to sappy, eye-roll-inducing finales in film. The single and its (extraterrestrial-infested) music video brought some kaleidoscopic pop to the doldrums of January.
Duffy sparked the idea for “Not Your Dream Girl” while watching Sixteen Candles and musing about what the soundtrack would sound like if the final acts of John Hughes movies weren’t so sweet. Using ’80s nostalgia as a springboard, she crafted a bubbly synth-pop tale of tenacity that aligned with some of her lived experience. The music video takes the tune in a campier direction, staging a surprise intergalactic romance within the most classic John Hughes setting: A high school. It might just be the most lifelike affair you see on this side of Valentine’s Day…”
