Hercules and Love Affair, "Blind"

It's way too hard to keep up with the interesting developments in music today -- mostly because pop radio as we know it now keeps up with mostly the uninteresting developments. Ever since the Stylus Singles Jukebox, for whom I was once a pop-singles reviewer, ended its fine run, I've struggled to find new stuff that really clicks with me.

Fortunately, it still happens. I became aware of "Blind" by Hercules and Love Affair earlier this spring through the invaluable I Love Music message board, but I didn't get around to listening to it until iTunes offered it up as a freebie a few weeks ago. In the ILM discussion, I couldn't escape one smart-aleck's reposted comment from the iTunes boards: that "it sounds like an old man moaning in pain because his hip broke in the middle of a nightclub. And as he falls, someone plays the trumpet."

It's funny because it's true! The lead vocals, supplied by Antony (he of the Johnsons), do indeed connote equal amounts of early morning's aging and late mourning's pain; I found myself thinking about the scenes in Studio 54 in which an old woman pranced joylessly about the floor. (No, I don't mean Liza Minnelli; and no, I don't mean Truman Capote.) "Blind" is evocative and open to interpretation, but for me, it's about the conundrum of aging as lived out on the dance floor. Can you be too old to dance in public? Can you be too old to have fun? I imagine Madonna makes a point of not listening to stuff like this.

At any rate, it's a hypnotic and dynamic groover, easily one of the best and most interesting tracks I've heard in 2008, and I'm glad the iTunes tastemakers thought so too.