Lightspeed Champion - 'Galaxy Of The Lost'
Apologies to all those of you who are still mourning Test Icicles, but I was never one of you. Indeed, the only thing I remember about them is the way they split, with Devonte Hynes admitting rather guiltily that they were never really all that keen on their own music. This stands out for me as a rare brilliant moment of band/audience directed honesty and ought to be applauded and studied in depth by all undergraduates at Band School as a great demonstration of the ways in which you can not only afford your fans the respect they deserve without being an asshat about it. And also how you can provide really great interview copy for journalists.
Anyway, that little jaunt into pop history is basically there to highlight how I feel quite favourable towards Dev and his Lightspeed Champion persona. And that's before a note has even been plucked.
This song pulls off one of my very favourite tricks, in the juxtaposition of unsavoury themes and lyrics with distractingly sweet, folksy melodies and arrangements, a bit like Tweetie Pie turning out to be the killer in a slasher movie. It's easy to listen to the song absentmindedly at first and think it's pretty or cute, but it's only when your ears prick up to lyrics that could have walked right out of the very worst anthologies of goth poetry ("Kiss my open wounds and add some ice, and choke on my sick vice") that you realise the song's being cleverer than it lets on.
The fact that the video opens with Dev surrounded by pastel colours and cradling a cat just makes the whole concoction even more delicious.
Trickery, of course, amounts to nothing if you haven't got something of substance behind it, so I'm pleased to say that even once you've fallen for the false start, there's enough of a hook - and a truly hauntingly beautiful melody - at the heart of the song to stand up by itself. Unfortunately, the same can't be said in reverse, as the lyrics really feel like the weak link in all of this.
There's an awkwardness about them that I can't for the life of me work out if it's deliberate or not - I'd like to think so, but my gut instinct says no. The melody line and the harmonies, however, are stunning enough that you can choose to tune out the actual words and listen to the singing if that makes you feel better about it all.
Download: Out now
CD Released: April 14th
(Steve Perkins)
PS: Dev gets outed as a black nerd by the blog, right here!
Comments