This is one of those rare tracks that I download, don't listen to right away and forget about completely. Then one day, it hits my shuffle play while I'm reading a magazine and I think, "What's this? Is it on that Anything Box album I downloaded a while back? It must be, because it doesn't sound like a cover." But no. Closer inspection (you can inspect things with your ears, right?) leads me to find it is in fact a cover. One that's so gloriously odd and amusing and dead-on in terms of achieving whatever it wants to achieve that I'm able to ignore any mediocrity within and revel in its mission. Especially when I learned that this dedicated synth duo was from Dallas, of all places. (And should not be confused with the Luxembourgian act of the same name. Hmm. Luxembourgian. Now there's a word I don't use very often.) I love that so many late-'80s synthpop acts I thought were European—e.g. Information Society, Anything Box, Cause & Effect, Book of Love [See Below]—weren't European in the least. What I also enjoy about this track is that it reminds me of a cover band named Situation Grey that was popular when I was in college. I hated Situation Grey with a passion, most likely, in retrospect, because I was in that requisite alt.grrrl anti-cover-band phase and jealous that they were so damned popular and were able to get good-paying gigs at frat parties and whatnot. Members of Situation Grey went onto to join/form bands I didn't hate, which also irked me. I'm over it now. Totally.
I had this whole spiel planned about how I think I missed my calling by not becoming an anorectic (I'd have to have a years-long bout of at least bulimia to get into cute little vintage dresses and the like) hipster who learned to play keyboards so I could monotonously, apathetically and somewhat off-key "sing" in an emo-synth band. Then I learned that the chick in this band is in remission from Hodgkin'’s Lymphoma and it didn't seem appropriate. Yeah.
For those who found Aqua's work to be a little too deep and melodic, have I got the track for you! This actually hit the charts a few years ago for a few weeks in Belgium, birthplace of the Smurfs. So no real surprises there.
Halloween's approaching and this was the only relevant track I could find on my hard drive in the three minutes I allotted myself toward the find-something-Halloweeny goal. I'm not used to this version that doesn't, unlike the track I wore out in high school that was on Sire's Just Say Yo compilation, mix right into BOL's "Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls." But with the aid of vodka or whiskey, I'd certainly dance to it at a Halloween party.
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