philip sherburne

Close to twee

Huge props to Matthew Perpetua at FluxBlog for posting an MP3 of Ce'Cile's "Rude Bwoy Thug Life", if only for the personal vindication it gives me. I discovered the "Cure" riddim on the Germaican label a year or more ago, and proudly played it out several versions of it at my Sunday night weekly at Dalva, in the Mission -- only to have a hardcore dancehall head scoff and roll his eyes at me. I don't know what he found so illegitimate about it -- the fact that it was German, or the fact that the riddim was based upon The Cure's "Close to Me," and thus way too close to electro-pop nostalgia to avoid suspicion. But that experience was perhaps the first time I experienced the poptimist's humiliation at the hands of a Keeper of Realness. Well come on, all you front-and-fessimists, it's Ce'Cile, for crying out loud -- how much more "real" can you get?

Granted, it's not my favorite Ce'Cile track, and I think that Seeed's jubilant "Release" makes far more effective use of the track's heart-tugging potential. But I do like the way she harmonizes against the track, dragging the refrain of "Man it's so nice" into a minor key while the tune sails on in a blissful major. Actually, the whole tune she sounds like she's swimming upstream, resisting the song's happy drift, determined to reach an altogether different shore. Poptimism = 1, haters = 0!