Escort, "All That She Is" (2007)

"What's so great about her?" "Well, she is all that she is." "And what's his problem?" "He is not what she is."

Um...illuminating. This Escort track -- the superior b-side to their latest 12" "A Bright New Life" -- could not have a sillier and more insubstantial lyrical hook. And yet, the fact that its one line, about her being her but him not being her, is urgently whispered makes it not completely ridiculous. It's an old trick of disco records; somehow, the whispering makes it feel like the song is imparting some terrible! Scandalous! Gossip! Have you heard the latest? You know that he and she and they did it during the day when it and she and he went there to see her and them and us? So the gossip turns out to be nonsensical. What piece of gossip isn't?

Meanwhile, the rest of the track keeps up the atmosphere. The beat, as on previous Escort records, is largely old school boogie, although this one is augmented by two particularly distinctive synth lines. One -- played at different points by a synth and then by strings -- is bassier and ponderous (as if revealing some secret: dong dong DONG DONG!!), while the other is a more agile, fleet-footed arpeggio (that sounds like word is spreading faster and faster). In a sense the record owes as much to 80s sleaze as it does to boogie, but whatever its influences, it continues to boost Escort's reputation as purveyors of fine revivalist dance music.