The reclamation, with glitter and smoke, synths and a backbeat, where You Say Party, We Say
Die! barge into a business conference meeting, where it’s finally come time - the taking back of dance, with a yell and a shout and yes, there’s nothing clean about it. It’s all over the place, this dance/punk Canadian beast, this engine of reference. A new one from the latest album, XXXX, called “Laura Palmer’s Prom” harks back to the cruel transition between the 80s and the 90s, where people were painstakingly removing bedazzled beads form their jackets and discovering the movies of John Hughes when it all became clear and all you wanted to do was dance until the credits rolled by. Or how about “There is XXX (Love within my Heart”)? There’s an ache in Becky Ninkovic’s vocals and a hop in the keys that skips from time to time, spewing melancholy. It’s a dirty reclamation, but it’s about time someone took back the dance beat from the plastic-y top 40 crowd. Hopefully people will get the Twin Peaks references too.
