For better or worse, the YouTube wunderkind's crooned his way into the pop canon

Whether you adore him or want to hack his body into small pieces with a meat cleaver, you've got to hand it to Tay Zonday—the ethnically and sexually ambiguous hero of YouTube possesses a certain insight into the evolutionary process by which a simple melody progresses from "kind of catchy" to "Krazy Glued to your DNA." (If we were still up to our old tricks at Abu Ghraib, a repeat loop of "Chocolate Rain" would go far in preventing another 9/11).

What a surprise, then, to learn that—with the right material—Zonday can pull off more than his typical deep-voiced Internet ingénue act. A lesser-trafficked addition to his canon, "Love," pairs his Barry White croon with a song written by "Kooby," aka "Chris," aka a kid from Australia. (A quick stalk of his Myspace proves that, Zonday-less, tracks like "Happy Trance Techno" and "Die" don't pack the same wallop). "Love" isn't another grindingly repetitive pop rant against injustice—it actually sounds like an outtake from the TV On The Radio's Return to Cookie Mountain. Perhaps it's what caused electro-noise darlings Dan Deacon and Girl Talk to take genuine notice. The pair just signed Tay up as the opening act for their October 5 show in Minneapolis.

Zonday himself wrote the lyrics to "Love" which, for those seeking a deeper peek into this oddball's psyche, are particularly revealing. At first it's little more than a finely delivered paean to romantic schmaltz. ("We ran barefoot on the edge of the ocean last night / how's about we go dancing in the moonlight of devotion instead?") Listen closer, however, and it's clear that Zonday might do well to spend some time with Kirk Cameron and the "Left Behind" crew, since this is really a pop song about making sexy until the Second Coming. "Heaven's calling don't you hear / We got laid over under here," he intones, ostensibly to a lover who's equally as patient for the rapture as he is. Please, people, someone give this guy a record deal—or at least a real McDonald's commercial.—Scott Indrisek

LINKS
• I'll take some chocolate rain and a side of fries
• Nerds of the world, unite
•Tay Zonday's future?