this is one of those songs that's ubiquitous throughout the rest of the world, but hasn’t penetrated past into the m25 (occupied as we are with stabbing and africans seeing god in cleanliness and material acquisition). so it’s very much a sex tour song for me.
i didn’t like it when i first heard it. that’s partly down to being what third calls an ‘innovation nut’, but it’s also the bleakness. the chord progression’s a bit off. it’s slower than it should be. sparser. it took a while to get to grips with the pop of it.
“something in you, lit up heaven in me” is where it really gets going. its like one of those people whose smile makes you smile. sonic charisma. but a memory for them. yearning. meeting someone at a party and falling in love, but never seeing them again. you fall in love with people you know the least. or maybe its arrogance. love for the self in a very literal sense. i’m genuinely in love with myself. touching yourself. the warms emanating from your belly.
then the chorus. pop at its best is inventing new playground chants. that’s why nelly’s great. jamaican’s are great at it. it sounds like something you should’ve heard a million times. a pocket full of poses. pure singing in the mirror with a hair brush as a microphone.
that instrumental post chorus is somewhat feverish. the sluggish reverse piano. if the brass were to be fantasia-style anthropomorphised they’d have down syndrome.