Why Lock Me In Your Arms?

Laetitia Sadier Source Ensemble featuring Alexis Taylor “Love Captive”

“Love Captive” begins with Laetitia Sadier and Alexis Taylor from Hot Chip repeating a line that is about as Laetitia Sadier as it gets: “Like so many other things, love has to be reinvented.” It’s the syntax, it’s the succinct statement, it’s the way she makes revolutionary ideas seem both urgent and sensible. This could easily be something she would have sung in Stereolab, but I don’t think the sentiment would have suited that band’s aesthetic as well as this loose, gently swaying arrangement. Stereolab songs were so tight and geometric; they don’t feel much like the sort of free love Sadier is proselytizing here. Sadier is encouraging freedom, kindness, and generosity, not a lack of responsibility. She’s imagining a world with fewer hang-ups, less destructive jealousy, fluid sexuality, and abundant love for all. It’s a vision of utopia, and the music helps make her argument by feeling so incredibly relaxed and vaguely spiritual.

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