Extreme Listening Mode!

We’ve been enthralled round these parts this week by ‘Pins and Panzers’, the debut album by New York electropop Plushgun. It’s a shimmering slice of atmospheric quality pop, the kind of thing the Killers tried with ‘Dancer’ and obviously failed so miserably at. More specifically, we’ve been the smitten kitten about their song ‘Just Impolite’, which is utterly fantastic, the kind of storming electronic single that Mute records used to do so wonderfully back in the day. This is the point we’d usually stick a YouTube link in, but not these days while the PRS v Google battle drags on. So we’ll just suggest you hit their MySpace page instead to hear it.

It has a fascinating little lyric too, where the lovelorn singer tries to justify his refusal to let a relationship end by saying he’s not obsessed, just impolite. Yes, yes, he’s a stalker, but it’s still a cracking tune.

There is a proud tradition in rock of songs where one person just won’t leave the other one be. The most famous example is probably ‘Every Breath You Take’, Sting’s on-the-surface pretty little tune full of rhyming dictionary couplets until you realise he’s basically telling some poor bint she’ll never be shot of him. Imagine that – Sting in your life 24/7. Euurgh. Creepy Geordie Bastard.

Siouxsie and the Banshee’s ‘Obsession’ does exactly what it says on the tin, and is suitably claustrophobic. ‘Diane’ by Húsker Dú and ‘Polly’ by Nirvana are extreme examples, when obsession has given way to something a whole lot less wholesome. ‘Knoxville Girl’ is a traditional song with a fairly horrific ending. On a different tack, Springsteen captures the inability of someone to give up on a destructive relationship even though they know it’s bad for them in the searing ‘I’m On Fire’.

I blame romantic comedy films myself. In those, women love you to go to their work and sing. They want you to find out where they live and send hundreds of teddy bears. They smile when they see you’ve filled up their message machine. But you try it. Simply try breaking into the flat of a woman you fancy and writing ‘I’m Watching You X’ in lipstick on their mirror and they’ll have you slung in jail.

I know; it’s appalling. They set you up for a fall, they really do.

Anyway, let’s hear your creepy songs of love.

(By the way, I’ve just realised what sort of person we’re going to have on site if they’ve entered ‘extreme lovin’ into Google. Welcome, perverts!)

Filed under: General Stuff Tagged: | Husker Du, Nirvana, Plushgun, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Songs about obsession, the police