Filed under: design of a decade, lists, music | Tags: 2002, kylie minogue, new order
9. Kylie Minogue, Can’t Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head and New Order, Here To Stay
Originally performed at the 2002 Brit Awards, Kylie’s Can’t Get Blue Monday Outta My Head arrived at the dawn of the mash-up era, a rather tedious time when DJs would lay popular songs on top of one another all willy-nilly to show how clever they were. I wasn’t really into the concept as a whole, and it annoyed the hell out of me when I actually wanted to dance, but it’s hard to argue when a surprisingly revitalized pop diva borrows the classic intro from a group who themselves were surprisingly revitalized that same year.*
Kylie had a few hits off her Fever album, which in retrospect is clearly one of the best pop CDs of the decade (though I foolishly didn’t actually buy it until later.) Love At First Sight is probably my favorite track now, followed by Fever and In Your Eyes and More More More. But every last song is good, and there’s certainly a lot to be said for Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, her first American hit in well over a decade. And her voice–coy, mysterious, sexy–is nothing at all like the slightly wooden delivery on I Should Be So Lucky, her previous US chart appearance.
Meanwhile, New Order’s comeback didn’t reach American ears (unless you count those who shop at Express, because they sure played the hell out of it there.) The Get Ready album was released in 2001, and it was fine enough, but the singles Crystal and 60 Miles An Hour suffered from the same lyrical clunkiness as too many New Order songs. Sounds great, but then there’s an awful “honey/money” rhyme that totally kills the mood. Here To Stay, on the other hand, had a great hook. Produced by the ever-wonderful Chemical Brothers, the song appeared only on the soundtrack to Michael Winterbottom’s 24 Hour Party People. It didn’t stray far from Get Ready’s formula–jittery percussion overlaid with guitars–but the song’s gets really stellar once the chorus comes in.
I think the sound is very millennial, if that makes any sense. Here To Stay reminds me of one of my favorite film genres, the Sad Movie That Ends With One Or More Lead Characters Meaningfully Driving Away In A Car. (See: Boys Don’t Cry, Lost In Translation, The Book Of Life.) I don’t even really like all those movies, but their endings win me over every time. And I’m not sure I can articulate why I like them, or what any of that has to do with the New Order song. But there’s an antsy mix of electronic and rock elements in Here To Stay, not aggressive (because New Order are never aggressive) and not hyper (ditto), but somehow you get the sense that they’re trying to make the best of things in a new world they’re not really comfortable in. It’s subtle, but it’s there.
(*Actually, the only other one I really like, the Love Will Tear Us Apart/Get Ur Freak On mashup, was also marginally New Order-related, I guess.)
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