The Knife - You Take My Breath Away

Consider this your moment of zen. 2003 must have been a very confusing year in Sweden. How else to explain this thoroughly bizarre video? Powerful psychotropic drugs? Perhaps. I love the Knife, but this is easily one of the top ten worst videos of all time. It's got it all: Bad lighting. Terrible graphics. Jazzercise. Vinyl clothing. A mysterious, masked man (most likely Knife principal, Olof Dreijer) dancing badly (or, at the very least, European-ly) in very low light. A satin jacket. It's almost hard to determine if this is some sort of joke or an unflinching and frighteningly accurate depiction of Swedish hipster culture circa the early Aughts (if this is in fact the case, it seems oddly similar to the imminently regrettable British "chav" scene)?

Over the past few years, the Knife have become one of the world's most mysterious bands, and, these days, it's exceedingly rare to see them unmasked. What must it be like to interview the Dreijer siblings? The press photos for their 2007 breakthrough Silent Shout featured pictures of the band in Venetian masks (see above). When they toured the world in support of this album (the first time they'd ever played live), they wore masks and dark bodysuits, and, if the accompanying DVD is to be believed, performed a great many songs in near darkness or very dim light.

I guess the amazing thing about the video for "You Take My Breath Away" is that Karin Dreijer-Andersson (the other half of The Knife and the young woman dancing on the left) is so obvious. To actually see the band in such a recognizable way, in light of their recent and considerable efforts at obfuscation, is jarring. It's almost hard to believe it's the same band. It's a bit like viewing those early clips of Daft Punk before they donned their robot helmets. The Knife were a very different band in 2003, and perhaps the palpable tension between these two wholly distinct identities/incarnations is tellingly reflective of what the Knife were and what they've become. Or maybe it's just further evidence of what they've always been. At the very least, it's another great example of what makes the Knife so compelling. You just never know what they might do next.

I have been listening to the Knife a lot as of late. This nascent interest is likely the result of my recent fascination with all things Fever Ray, all this talk about the Aughties and my sincere love of "Heartbeats" (my #3 track of the decade, P4K's #15 - ahead of even R. Kel's "Ignition (Remix)" - Amazing). After listening to both Deep Cuts and Silent Shout many times in the past week, I have become convinced of two things:

1) Silent Shout (P4K's #1 album of 2006) is in no way as terrifying as I initially thought. I couldn't even listen to this thing when I first bought it. It was just too scary. I blame Pitchfork, their "Haunted House" tag and the power of suggestion. While it's entirely possible I've become hardened in the years since I last listened to this album, it's also arguable that Silent Shout is less "out there" than it seemed upon initial release. It has been three years, and the past few years have been a pretty good time for countless, once fringe-worthy forms of electronic music. Two words: fidget-house. I rest my case.

Nevertheless, this album is unsettling. There's a strange tension in most of The Knife's songs, and this, in addition to their shapeshifting and creativity, is likely why critics find them so fascinating. They make a music that engenders simultaneous, seemingly diametrically-opposed reactions (terms like "icy warmth" or "human automaton" come to mind) Perhaps it's all the vocal tricks. Or their cold, windswept sound. Or maybe it's Ms. Dreijer-Andersson's witchy, metallic vocal tone. Or the relentless precision of their nocturnal soundtrack. Perhaps it's simply the creepiness of the lyrics. Nevertheless, this is music from a very dark, deep and forgotten well, and, while it appears the Dreijers sincerely enjoy frightening the listening public (at least for now - Fever Ray's (Ms. Dreijer-Andersson's solo project) recent album and companion videos are nothing if not terrifying), it's safe to say their next release (they are currently working on an opera about Charles Darwin - you know, no big whoop) will sound nothing like this.

2) I love The Knife's "You Take My Breath Away". Forget the video. This song is great. To be perfectly honest, I first heard this tune two weeks ago. I bought it on a lark and at the behest of some anonymous reviewer on iTunes. As with "Heartbeats" and their Robyn collaboration "Who's That Girl", the strength of this song lies in the empathetic, almost hip-hop-ish interplay between the vocals and the synthesizer. Dated as it may sound and incomprehensible as its lyrical allusions may be ("We raise our heads for the color red"?), "You Take My Breath Away" is smart, meticulous, so retro it must be futuristic, pop music. While it is totally different than Silent Shout, this song (and the best moments Deep Cuts for that matter) offers a brief and early glimpse of the incomparable genius of a band that would go on compose the definitive electronic album of the past ten years. Ghoulish and impish as they may now be, the Knife is one of the most compelling pop groups of the past decade.