Vanimal: Lift Me Up

Woke up at 4am with this song in my head. Haven't heard it since it came out, probably and I've no idea how I stumbled on it.

I don't know what the other mixes sound like but this one is kind of perfection with the new wave meets disco vibe.

I'm a sucker for "person singing while someone sings something else underneath," as a technique. Especially if the two are unrelated. When Guided By Voices started, they sounded like the rust belt version of R.E.M. and on their first EP "Forever Since Breakfast," the track "Land of danger," features ththis not-really call and response style. I don't know what you call it. It's too early to look it up.

Oh baby, this is the land of danger
(Each and every home a battlefield)
Oh baby, this is the throat of a stranger
(Searching for the blood that's now congealed)
Oh baby, this is a thick muddy mystery
(Tearing at the pages of our past)
Oh baby, this is the straight path of history
(Human motion, land and ocean)

By the way, "Forever Since Breakfast" was the answer Charles Manson gave an interviewier when he was asked "How old are you?"

R.E.M.'s older catalog is littered with this technique especially in their earlier work. "Fall on Me," is closer to a call and response since Mike Mills is directly referencing what Stipe is singing about. While Stipe's chorus asks the sky "Don't fall on me," Mills plaintively asks "What is it up in the air for?"

The directness of this song was unusual for R.E.M.'s earlier work which was usually so much more abstract and intruiging. I always felt ike when Bill Berry left they became a totally different band, lyrically speaking. Not a critique, mind you, just an observation.