Goldfrapp - 'Happiness'
We all have good reason to suspicious of the word 'happiness', especially you ladies. Not because of any misguided goth logic about how happiness is just an illusion and the only true reality is eternal pain, mind. If happiness is an illusion, so is sadness, which would make the only true reality an eternal shrug. But, the reason we should be suspicious of the word is that it has been used in the past to manipulate the minds of unsuspecting girls by sleazy men who like to make bold claims about their ability to pull.
I once watched an interview with a man who claimed he had slept with a very large amount of women. One of his tricks was to use fairly commonplace words which contain other, ruder words, and then, in conversation with a girl, emphasise the key portion of the word in a really subtle way, so that without really knowing why, the girl would find herself thinking about saucy things.
An example might be the word 'bumpy' (I can't use many of the real examples, you'll have to pretend the word 'bum' is DEAD SEXY), which would be crowbarred into a conversation - maybe in a story about a taxi ride across a cobbled street - with much emphasis on the 'bum' part, and not so much on the 'pee' part. Get that bit wrong, and you won't so much cop off as spend the evening watch your intended date rush off the loo every five minutes.
Still, creepy stuff, eh? Anyway, one of the words he liked to use a lot was 'happiness', for reasons which will become plain if you think about the latter half of the word for a little while. Bully for him. But the thing is it totally ruined any use of the word in any other context for me. I can't get away from his creepy double-meaning.
For example, back in the 1960s, the comedian Ken Dodd had a hit single called 'Happiness', and the lyrics went like this:
"Happiness, happiness, the greatest gift that I possess
I thank the Lord that I've been blessed
With more than my share of happiness"
You think about that in the context of the double-meaning thing, and it becomes TOTAL FILTH, and also REALLY DISTURBING.
This song contains the line "how'd you get to be happiness". Which sort of makes sense in a poetic kind of way, but if you apply the Ken Dodd rule, transforms into mindless abuse.
So, I can't even listen to it properly now, it's all ruined. And that's a shame, cos musicially it's rather good.
In summary: For God's sake don't read this review if you want to like Goldfrapp, OK? Read instead. It's on the Pop Culture Buzz blog...
Oh, should I have mentioned that earlier on?
Download: Out now
CD Released: April 14th
(Fraser McAlpine)
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