Friday, September 30, 2011

Florence Gets The Benny Benassi Treatment

"Lungs" was one of my favourite albums of 2009 and kept me company well into 2010. But somewhere towards the end of last year I began to suffer Florence-fatigue. Her transformation from the Benjamin Buttons of indie-pop to the dolled-up hitmaker of today was disconcerting and I began to suspect she was a bit of a one-trick pony when the dreary and predictable "What The Water Gave Me" dropped a couple of months ago. Happily, "Shake It Out" restored my faith. The organs and tambourines give it an unexpected gospel sound and the lyrics kill me. I'm tempted to get this couplet tattooed on my forehead as a constant reminder to wise the fuck up:

I am done with my graceless heart,
So tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart


So what do you do with a beautiful spiritual hymn that sinks like a stone on iTunes? Call Benny Benassi and ask him to jazz it up with a dance remix for radio. This sounds like a very bad idea for so many reasons but it works. I'm not too proud to admit that I love Benny's version. It's more palatable to non-depressed/damaged listeners and the superstar DJ's killer beats are going to tear up dancefloors around the globe. All of a sudden, the second coming of Florence fills me with joy. May she continue to sell out at every possible opportunity!

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