Chromeo, "Bonafied Lovin' (Tough Guys)" (2007)
A bouncy electro number that, in a perfect world, would be #1 on every pop chart, "Bonafied Lovin'" sees Dave 1 trying to persuade some woman that she needs to dump her sweaty, insecure young buck of a boyfriend and take up with him, the older guy with "life experience" and "the right clothes and the right appearance," who can give her "bonafied lovin'." It's not clear why older lovin' is more "bona fide," unless there is some joke here about geriatric boners that I am too innocent to appreciate. "Never mind an SMS, what you need is a sweet caress," he hilariously sings, as if technology and TLC are mutually exclusive. You only need one hand to SMS, I've been told.
There's therefore little question that the lyric is faintly absurd -- a Boomkat review calls it "howlingly silly" -- but to take it as unintentionally funny would miss the point. Admittedly, I myself might have some years ago: I first heard of Chromeo via the Paper Faces (aka Jacques Lu Cont) remix of their "Needy Girl," so I filed them away as a humorless band that has more in common with glum techno acts rather than what they really are. I recently burned their Fancy Footwork album onto a 80 min CDR, alongside the equally brief Pleasure 2 album, and the two bands go perfectly together. (Indeed, it would have been way more appropriate for Lu Cont to have remixed "Needy Girl" under his Les Rythmes Digitales moniker.) And really, that 80s backing -- chock full of insanely catchy cartoon sound effects -- should make the tongue-in-cheek nature of the song abundantly clear. This, after all, is a song in which our narrator tries to seduce a woman by proclaiming his coolness, but the music that backs up his claim is totally "uncool" and "untough" 80s electro. He's just a big ol' dork, and that's why I love this track so.
A bouncy electro number that, in a perfect world, would be #1 on every pop chart, "Bonafied Lovin'" sees Dave 1 trying to persuade some woman that she needs to dump her sweaty, insecure young buck of a boyfriend and take up with him, the older guy with "life experience" and "the right clothes and the right appearance," who can give her "bonafied lovin'." It's not clear why older lovin' is more "bona fide," unless there is some joke here about geriatric boners that I am too innocent to appreciate. "Never mind an SMS, what you need is a sweet caress," he hilariously sings, as if technology and TLC are mutually exclusive. You only need one hand to SMS, I've been told.
There's therefore little question that the lyric is faintly absurd -- a Boomkat review calls it "howlingly silly" -- but to take it as unintentionally funny would miss the point. Admittedly, I myself might have some years ago: I first heard of Chromeo via the Paper Faces (aka Jacques Lu Cont) remix of their "Needy Girl," so I filed them away as a humorless band that has more in common with glum techno acts rather than what they really are. I recently burned their Fancy Footwork album onto a 80 min CDR, alongside the equally brief Pleasure 2 album, and the two bands go perfectly together. (Indeed, it would have been way more appropriate for Lu Cont to have remixed "Needy Girl" under his Les Rythmes Digitales moniker.) And really, that 80s backing -- chock full of insanely catchy cartoon sound effects -- should make the tongue-in-cheek nature of the song abundantly clear. This, after all, is a song in which our narrator tries to seduce a woman by proclaiming his coolness, but the music that backs up his claim is totally "uncool" and "untough" 80s electro. He's just a big ol' dork, and that's why I love this track so.
posted by Brittle-Lemon at
6:18 PM
2 Comments:
This songs reminds me so much of something. Very specific (another song or an artist from the 80's, of course), maybe Billy Ocean? But no...argh. Anyway it's definitely charming.
By
daavid, at 2:30 PM
The Gap Band's "You Drop The Bomb On Me," perhaps? That's what parts of this makes me think of.
By
Brittle, at 12:50 AM
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