Looking For Mystery

Chrysta Bell “Do You Think You Could Love Me?”

“Do You Think You Could Love Me,” perhaps deliberately, sounds a self-consciously dark and moody cover of an ’80s pop song that never was – an imaginary hit Olivia Newton-John, Irene Cara, or Taylor Dayne just never got around to making. The craft is strong, but the commitment to aesthetic is even stronger. Chrysta Bell is a frequent collaborator of David Lynch, and though he was not involved in this song his influence is very apparent. The effect is basically that whatever sexual intensity that would have been in the song regardless is run through a Lynchian filter of grim ambiguity – there’s a suggestion of fucked-up subtext that shifts the possible meaning of every line, so Bell’s motives are always difficult to read. What does she actually want? Is it exactly what she says, or is she toying with the person she’s addressing? It makes you feel like you need to know the answer.

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