Fluxblog Weekly #199: Kylie Minogue, The Knife, Cornershop, Sleater-Kinney, Crossover
This week marks the 17th anniversary of Fluxblog. To celebrate this occasion all of the posts this week are songs from around the time the site began in 2002.
February 18th, 2019
From Wrong To Right
Kylie Minogue “Love At First Sight”
My two favorite Kylie Minogue songs are about finding a profound connection with someone via music. In “Love At First Sight,” it’s falling in love with the taste of a DJ. In “Sweet Music” it’s about the intimacy of collaborating with someone on creating music. I’ve felt different ways about this sort of thing through my life – around the time these songs came out, this was the dream. Then I went through a long phase of thinking this sort of thing was actually sort of shallow. Then I found out that from experience that was actually very false, and now bonding over a deep love of art feels incredibly important to me again, something I would never want to live without. It’s the least superficial thing, really – it’s shared values and aesthetics, it’s emotional resonance and soul.
“Love At First Sight” doesn’t need lyrics to get across this feeling. It’s built to convey a feeling of sudden clarity, and joy washing over you as complications seem to completely disappear from your mind. It’s like this simple emotional arithmetic where everything adds up to YOU no matter how you run the numbers. The best part of the song dramatizes two beautiful moments in sequence – that dawning realization, and the euphoria of KNOWING and FEELING it all. They replay it a few times as part of a standard pop structure, and just getting to feel a special moment a few times over right there reminds you of how wonderful pop music can be.
Buy it from Amazon.
February 20th, 2019
Ten Days Of Perfect Tunes
The Knife “Heartbeats”
In my mind this song is essential to the story of Fluxblog, and perhaps the finest example of the international pop underground I was focused on for the first six years of the site’s existence. But I’ve never really written about it. I featured it in a post with two other tracks in April 2003, but that was back when the emphasis of the site was on sharing music more than writing about it. I didn’t figure that out for a little while. I wasn’t fully prepared to reckon with anything this deep when I was just 22, so I’m going to try to give it a go today.
“Heartbeats” has proven to be quite good in very different arrangements, but the Deep Cuts arrangement will always be my favorite. The delicacy of The Knife’s live arrangement or José González’s acoustic version is lovely, but a lot of the magic of the song for me is in the slightly awkward weight of that big chunky synth riff and in the way the keyboard accents seem to sparkle garishly in the background. The beauty of the song is in the way Karin Dreijer’s vocal melody soars gracefully in contrast with a track that’s a bit tacky and off-balance. It’s a song about falling in love, and awkwardness and corniness is part of that.
Dreijer’s lyrics are as evocative as the sound of the piece, alternating between obvious romanticism (“one night of magic rush, the start: a simple touch”) and more oblique poetry (“you kept us awake with wolves’ teeth,” “mind is a razor blade”). The tense shifts around, starting off in an uncertain present – “one night to be confused, one night to speed up truth” – but most of it is sung in the past tense. It’s hard to tell whether this is meant to be taken as nostalgia for a love that has since ended, or just the early days of something ongoing. But it doesn’t really matter because either way it’s about a special moment in time that’s behind them regardless of how things turned out.
Buy it from Amazon.
February 21st, 2019
I Understand Guns In The A&R Office
Cornershop “Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III”
This is a song that makes bitterness seem fun. “Lessons Learned from Rocky I to Rocky III” is a glam rock sung from the perspective of some aggrieved music industry insider who’s spilling jaded wisdom that’s so esoteric and incoherent that you’re left wondering if he has any idea what he’s actually talking about. This is a guy who’s in love with his own bullshit and clings desperately to whatever sort of rock world privilege he can grasp onto. Cornershop lean into the ‘70s sleaze vibes here – the main guitar riff sounds like it fell off the back of a truck in 1972, and the soulful backup vocals are played so straight that Tjinder Singh’s vocal seems extra deadpan in contrast. When he sings about “the overgrown supershit” in the chorus, it’s hard to tell whether he’s dismissing other bands, or mocking himself, and that ambiguity is the spice that brings out the flavor in the song.
Buy it from Amazon.
February 22nd, 2019
On Bended Knees
Sleater-Kinney “Sympathy”
“Sympathy” is about a painful experience that is fairly common, but rarely addressed in music: Nearly losing a child who is born prematurely. Corin Tucker is singing from experience here, and it shows. Tucker typically sings with the maximum level of emotional commitment, but she’s especially raw here as she pleads, belts, and wails. The first few verses set up the context as a prayer to God, but the most powerful bits in the song come later when she switches over to addressing her audience and passing along wisdom borne of total agony on the bridge. The dynamics shift dramatically in this section; it’s like the snap of a whip. “There is no righteousness in your darkest moment,” Tucker shouts at full intensity just before going a few steps further. “WE’RE ALL EQUAL IN THE FACE OF WHAT WE’RE MOST AFRAID OF.” That line wrecks me; it’s just too real. Anyone who’s had to confront serious loss or trauma knows this is the truth. There’s a happy ending to this song, and it ends on a note of genuine gratitude. But even with that, it’s hard to shake that lingering pain.
Buy it from Amazon.
February 22nd, 2019
Exactly What She Does
Crossover “Extensive Care”
Vanessa Tosti has a perfect voice. Not so much in terms of technical singing ability, but in her tone and inflection – as far as I’m concerned, she’s got the perfect balance of cool, cute, charming, and clever. This vocal tone is the focal point of “Extensive Care,” one of the finest songs of the short-lived electroclash era. Tosti pays tribute to another stylish and unfathomably cool woman to the beat of a bouncy synth track, mostly calling attention to the gulf between how everyone perceives her (“she’s loved downtown for exactly what she does”) and her apparent insecurity (“you should see yourself the way I see you.”) The rest of Tosti’s line nod to the joys of creating a look and persona, and the power that comes from controlling your image and narrative, and standing out from the crowd. Tosti’s own coolness seems effortless, but “effort” is not the right word. There is effort in creating and living up to an aesthetic. What you’re hearing here and what she’s seeing in this other woman is someone who’s put in the work to be fully themselves.
Buy it from Amazon.