Dancing With Myself: Aquaria Heads Out Alone in The Knocks’ Video for “Slow Song”

The electronic-music duo, The Knocks, consisting of Ben “B-Roc” Ruttner and James “JPatt” Patterson, released the sound of summer, in spring 2022. “Slow Song,” featuring Martina “Dragonette” Sorbara on vocals, is shimmery, “bassy” synthpop with a melody line in the chorus that’s so sunny it ironically brings the chills (the good kind).

If the song itself isn’t shimmery enough, the Austin Peters-directed music video delivers the (lip) glossy glam, thanks to “Rupaul’s Drag Race” season 10 winner, Aquaria. Stuck in a dead-end job in the dead of night, Aquaria’s character closes up shop at the farmacia, and retreats to a nearly deserted dancehall to spiritually recharge, with music and movement the metaphorical sources of energy.

After sitting solo at a table, the stunning performer stands up, and sashays out to the dance floor, for what could be considered a Flashdance-finale moment.*

During the song’s bridge, the video cuts to footage of a strobe-light-bathed Aquaria suddenly surrounded by other dancing patrons. It seems unlikely the empty club had an influx of nightclubbers, leading to the theory that this could all be in Aquaria’s head, perhaps a dream of life before COVID closed the clubs, before socializing was replaced by social distancing. The video then quickly cuts to Aquaria adamantly exiting the dancehall, a few patrons can be seen off to the sides, but it becomes more about Aquaria’s ownership of a night out alone, reminding us that sometimes you just have to break free, even if it’s—especially nowadays—by yourself.

*Flashdance, directed by Adrian Lyne. Paramount Pictures, 1983.

Hi-Fi Sci-Fi: Five Favorite Daft Punk Moments

Formed in 1993, Daft Punk consists of the French duo, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who have continued to don dapper futuristic personas, shielding their faces from the public by wearing gleaming robot-inspired helmets. In one sense, this allows a focus toward the sci-fi sound of their music, while, in turn, it works as an inventive marketing strategy that balances professional familiarity with personal anonymity.

“Around the World,” from their 1997 debut album, Homework, celebrates the cyclical, from the song title itself (the track’s only lyrics on a synthesized loop) to its therefore mostly instrumental, intentionally repetitive retro-funk sound. Even its video embraced spherical visuals: dancers, assigned to designated riffs, beats and blips, moving on a concentric circular stage, plus there’s colorful backdrop of porthole lighting. Daft Punk made going around in circles more desirable than dizzying:

Four years later, they released, Discovery, which featured the fitting “One More Time”; “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” which would later be heavily sampled by Kanye West on his 2007 track, “Stronger”; and “Digital Love.” Remember this commercial for the GAP, with the actress and singer, Juliette Lewis? (The jeans—and the video quality itself—are shall we say, vintage.)

From Madison Avenue to the movies: In 2010, they created the 24-track score for the film, Tron: Legacy, creating a mood to match the gloom-and-doom world that exists inside a cutthroat video game, with “Recognizer” starting out as intensely ominous, then suddenly becoming one of the most hauntingly beautiful tracks:

On 2013’s electro-disco, Random Access Memories, it was filled with inspired collaborations, most notably with Pharrell Williams and Chic’s Nile Rodgers on “Get Lucky” and “Lose Yourself to Dance.” In 2014, the album won the GRAMMY for Album of the Year:

And finally, their work on the 2016 album, Starboy by The Weeknd, in particular on the synth-R&B title track, and on the sexy, soulful bop of a ballad, “I Feel It Coming.” The bass riff that rolls in before the second verse is something for which to wait:

Will there be more good things from Daft Punk in the future, that sound like the future? I feel that coming too.

Love ‘Em and “Leo” Fast: Holiday Sidewinder’s Ode to the One-Night Stand

In the summer of 2018, Australian pop singer, Holiday Sidewinder released her catchy single, “Leo,” with its refrain including a synthesized rhyming roll call of lovers, everyone from Leo to Rodrigo, Marco to Diego, and a few others. The track could be seen as one woman’s reinterpretation of Prince’s “Little Red Corvette,” the tale now told listing the names of “the jockeys that were there before me,” as His Royal Badness once sang.

“Leo” is certainly intriguing, for it manages to sound like one thing, but say something completely different. Sidewinder’s vocal style suggests coy innocence, while the lyrics point to a woman who doesn’t mince words (“I’ll give you tonight, but I won’t call you tomorrow”), even brazenly forewarning: “Lock up your husbands, and lock up your sons.”

Provocative content aside, and there’s lots of it, “Leo” works on its own as a smartly constructed pop song. The first verse features a bass-synthesizer as the hero instrument, giving it all kinds of ‘80s feels, with Sidewinder’s aforementioned vocal delivery adding a dreamy effect; her character mojito-intoxicated in the nightlife. After the roll-call refrain, the rapid-fire drums give way to the carefree-sounding chorus, the morning walk of (no) shame has never sounded sunnier, thanks, in part, to more melodic vocals, reminiscent of Gwen Stefani’s. And with the start of the second verse, the bass-synthesizer gets replaced by a deep bass-guitar riff, only solidifying its ‘80s new-wave nostalgia. Take a listen, and you too might quickly love it; if not, just move on.

A Brief Stint with Synth: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: “You Got Lucky”

Similar to disco in the ‘70s, which had just about everyone, including a brief stint by The Rolling Stones (“Miss You”), “disco-fying” their sound, this new-wave MTV era now had a rock group synthesizing their sound to fit into the musical landscape. Florida rockers Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, known for ‘70s FM-radio hits embraced adaptability with 1982’s “You Got Lucky.”

Whether you were already a fan of their car-radio favorites or discovered the band via the Mad Max-inspired music video for “You Got Lucky,” it was this openness to explore that introduced the group to an even bigger audience. However, the band’s visit to this alien land of synth was (intentionally?) ephemeral. In the apocalyptic video, the Heartbreakers play rough, yet wary space cowboys, stumbling upon a lost desert station, presumably on Earth, filled with technological artifacts and fads. Note at the end that the only item they take with them is the electric guitar, which Mike Campbell loads into his shuttle. They leave behind the jackpot of coins, the arcade games, TV sets and the cassette-tape player; the guitar the only real thing of value, interest and relevance, symbolic of the band’s loyalty to their traditional rock lineage and the only necessary instrument for where the band was headed… back home.

It’s also noteworthy that Petty’s futuristic character, ironically wearing old-west attire, almost takes the tape player, yet decides to leave it behind, not only foreshadowing its obsolescence, but perhaps serving as another indication of Petty’s affinity for the traditional, i.e., the vinyl record. The band did manage to welcome one important innovation: the music video. They continued to embrace the marketing tool, becoming one of the most creative bands to push the concept forward, so much so, their videos became short four-minute films. Three years later “Don’t Come Around Here No More” became one of the best, albeit surreal and disturbing, videos of the MTV ‘80s. Just as the Stones followed up “Miss You” with their return to form, “Beast of Burden,” Tom and the gang soon issued the familiar-sounding “Change of Heart,” an aptly titled release, considering from where they just came.