Archive for 2011

1/5/11

What’s Left Of Me When You Do That?

The Dø “Gonna Be Sick!”

The start of “Gonna Be Sick!” is a bit plodding and monotone, but as the song progresses, it becomes far more lively and colorful. Also, and the title may be a giveaway here, it gets to sound a lot more nervous. The emotional shifts are a bit jarring, and follow along with the piece’s unusual tonal and rhythmic transitions and collisions. (I actually hear a lot of Can influence in this arrangement. Do you?) Olivia Bouyssou Merilahti’s voice is especially great and expressive, investing her anxious words with enough drama to be emotionally engaging while just humorous enough to undercut the tension with some dark self-aware wit. The song pulled me in right away, but even still I feel like this is very much the type of track that can seem minor at first, but is quite astonishing when you spend a bit of time paying close attention to its details.

Buy it via The Dø’s site.

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1/4/11

We’re Already Dead

M.I.A. “Gen N-E-Y”

So yeah, I didn’t like ///Y/ very much. And because of this, I wonder if a lot of my enthusiastic approval of Vicki Leekx is based on just feeling relieved that M.I.A. is once again focusing on her strengths rather than her weaknesses. Whereas ///Y/ was a messy, joyless slog, the mixtape repositions her as a brilliant curator of beats and the kind of vocalist who knows exactly how to make her bitterness and anger sound like a very good time. “Gen N-E-Y” is a highlight of the mix, and it’s one of the most brutal tracks she’s ever done. She’s tearing someone apart — some people are saying it’s a Diplo dis track, which sounds about right to me — and her spite sounds incredibly focused. There’s some very well-applied filter effect on her voice, and it intensifies the nastiness in her tone, as if her words have been sharpened to a point being plunged into the person she’s addressing on every hard beat. It’s vicious, but weirdly fun. Misanthropic glee, I guess.

Get the full mixtape for free from M.I.A.

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1/3/11

Let’s Save Our Troubles For Another Day

Janet Jackson “Escapade”

It occurred to me the other day that “Escapade” is Janet Jackson’s equivalent to her brother Michael’s monster hit “The Way You Make Me Feel.” Most obviously, both songs are perky, optimistic, and flirty in tone, and tend to be considered among their most frivolous singles. More specifically, the two songs have nearly identical subject matter and sentiment. The lyrics come from the perspective of working class people who are trying to fit romance into their lives, and are getting very excited about spending time with the object of their affection. It’s all very banal, but that’s kind of the point, and not simply in terms of writing something that a broad range of people can relate to in some way. Michael sings about “working from 9 to 5;” Janet “worked so hard all week” and just cashed her check so she has some money on her weekend getaway. If you put this in the context of the singers’ very unusual upbringing and phenomenal careers, the most ordinary details start to come across like a fantasy of normalcy. They invest these songs with so much effervescent joy and enthusiasm, and I think on some level it’s because they really yearned for something so simple, fun, and uncomplicated. Of course, we do too! The singer and audience may be thinking of the some thing from different perspectives and economic means, but the expression puts them right in the same place.

Buy it from Amazon.

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