two.

[cabaretlights.livejournal.com]

Gold Blood
Artist: The Hundred in the Hands
Album: S/T
Year: 2010
♥: As you know, I heard this song on the train. I'd loaded up the ole iPod with a bunch of albums I keep meaning to listen to, with the express purpose of actually listening to them. This was partially successful: there are a few other songs that may make their way to this comm eventually, but for now -- Gold Blood.

So I'm listening, liking the album's mellowed-out Ladytron vibe (especially from Pigeons, another winner), and then this song pops up with its dissonant electric guitar and strangely aharmonic opening verses. I didn't quite know what to make of it at first: a throwaway song they'd play before 11:30 at Saph? Some weird amalgamation of Lykke Li and the YYYs? Like Like You, it doesn't really belong with the rest of the album. Unlike Like You, it's not exactly beautiful -- UNTIL!

the freaking chorus.
I am huge on melodies and hooks. I definitely love experimental and atonal stuff -- but to really fall head over heels for a song, I need something I can't help but hum to myself. So when the key changed and the guitar made way for keyboards in that first chorus, I actually sat up straight in my seat.
The second chorus is my favourite, because I also love layers (in art, generally -- the more I hear/see in any given instance, the more I love it). The first time she sings it, with just synth-keyboards and a touch of drum: lovely, and then BANG BANG BANG. I keep blasting that part and I'm sure Julie&Meg are sick of it but tough bananas because it makes me dance like a crazy. The whole song does, actually: after multiple listens (and do listen multiple times, it had to grow on me!), I have realized that it is in no way a Saph throwaway -- it's something they should play at 1:30, primetime. "Time to lose your shit, ladies and gentlemen!"

The lyrics aren't overly exceptional, but I love the lines I put in the graphic, and the second verse: Young blood, no chance -- youth in a rude stance, dancing on the edge of dawn. Nice. 

LISTEN LOUD!

two

[amethysting.livejournal.com]

Tanz der Moleküle
MIA.
Zirkus
2006

When I first heard this song I hated it.

I was "backpacking" (I use the term loosely because I had a suitcase on wheels) around Europe with my friend Andrea in the fall of 2006.  A few weeks of our two month trip were dedicated to visiting the small, quaint and sometimes forgettable towns of Germany.

When we would splurge on a hotel room (or when the town we were staying in didn't actually HAVE a hostel) we would keep the TV tuned to MTV Germany.  MIA.'s "Tanz der Moleküle" video was in heavy rotation.  Let me tell you, the video is a stellar piece of cinematography: the lead singer Mieze Katz wears a floaty, multicoloured dress and stands in a white room.  Bright, gumball-like balls bounce around her, fall from the ceiling, are juggled and roll by lazily.  She has felt purple stars stuck to the side of her head and looks coyly at the camera.  At one point she sings to an orange ball.  I, of course, mocked both video and song mercilessly.

But then something happened.

Andrea and I would catch ourselves uhuhuhuhuh-ing under our breath.  We'd turn the volume up on the TV when the video came on.  We'd talk about how pretty Mieze's eye-makeup is in the video.  In Frankfurt, I bought the album.

This song is not a lyrical gem (see below).  It is more about how the words sound rather than what they mean.  If someone only had the patience to listen to a snippet of this song I would make it the beginning and the end.  I love how the song starts with those little blips of the xylophone and how all the other instruments join in as if they are waking up.  I love how the song builds and builds and those horns join in at the end.

I love thinking about the moment the song came on in a club in Rostock and Andrea and I jumped up and down and actually squealed (I, uh, may have clapped my hands a little).  I'm not sure if the room was spinning because I was drunk, or if I actually was spinning around in circles, but this song evokes that dizzy, happy feeling--not caring, or worrying, or thinking about anything other than how much you love this song in this moment in this place and how, if you close your eyes tight enough, you can spin yourself into bliss.

As an aside: the video actually makes sense.  The song is called Dance of the Molecules.

Uhuhuhuhuhu, mein Herz tanzt.
Uhuhu und jedes Molekül bewegt sich

(Uhuhuhuhuhu, my heart dances
Uhuhu and every molecule sways itself)