I Love You Like Being Kissed

of Montreal “Girl Named Hello”

It’s hard to find the emotional center of this song. It’s a groovy tune, but like a lot of music derived from Afrobeat, there’s a moodiness underlying the joyful physicality of the rhythm. Kevin Barnes’ vocals and lyrics are all over the place, veering between playful, goofy lines and some intense self-loathing. Or rather, perspective on intense self-loathing: “If I treated someone else the way I treat myself, I’d be in jail.” I like the way the piece feels stuck in an emotional limbo, a bit self-conscious about the past and totally unsure of the future. Barnes makes the best of this in-between tone in the album sequencing, bookending it with the joyful, earnestly flirtatious “Sex Karma” and the bitter, spiteful “Famine Affair.” It’s an entire side on the vinyl edition, and in three songs it is a microcosm of False Priest‘s manic depressive version of romance.

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Veronika Fischer “He, Wir Fahr’n Mit Dem Zug”

The title translates to “Hey, we ride the train.” I’m not sure, but I think that might be the official motto of Germany. Anyway, this is a prime bit of East German disco from the late ’70s. I responded to this song immediately. For one thing, it is comprised of so many familiar disco signifiers that it seems as if the band and the producers were attempting to make the ultimate disco track. But despite the somewhat overstuffed quality of the arrangement, every bit is extremely well executed and distinct. There’s a lot of color and contrast to this song. Also, not for nothing but there is a keyboard part in this track that seems to anticipate the chorus melody of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” (I’m not alone in hearing that, right?)

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