Sunday 25 March 2012

The 2kDozen 500: #114 - Miike Snow, "Happy to You"

From the modernist maelstrom of Trevor Jackson's "Metal Dance" compilation to Miike Snow's pop postcards from the postmodern blizzard.

"Happy to You" is missing its festivity -no Birthday or Anniversary or whatever. I quite like the absence. Can't say I'm sure of its significance though. Fuss about nothing?

"Go to the bar and say semi-sexist things" - that's your postmodern malaise right there on "God Help This Divorce". It's got that kind of melancholy sweetness that we expect from our Scandanavian cousins, the low-lying nordic Sun and its reach into the hearts of folks. "Bavarian #1" struts about with a military snare and jaunty whistle. "Pretender" is an awesome parpy version of an Ardkore track from back in the yesterdays with real drums and everything. An Altern8 brass band with drop kick drum stutter. "Devil's Work" has the same template - brass and breakbeats.


"I'm running derelict around these foreign streets" they sing on "Archipelago" whilst neatly pronouncing each syllable of the title. And the whistle is back: the Roger Whittakers of dance music. "Paddling Out" has the air of a real T4 floorfiller. I don't really pick up on anything else about it.

There's a sense of irony, as with someone like Hot Chip. Not piss-taking, not sarcasm: just a slight sense that they aren't quite saying what's on their minds because they can't. It isn't a position of strength. All the military snare in the world isn't going to change that.

Rating: Rave out of Melancholic Pianos

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