By Kavit Sumud | January 11th, 2013
True to the point of being cliché, sometimes danger can be hot. Sometimes the dance floor, while being a place of bodies melting together into a corporal orgy of bliss, can be full minefields as well. In the indie club scene, you often run into a charismatic person who radiates wanton, self-destruction from their eyes… but all you want to do is cast yourself into their orbit.
I call it the reverse Manic Pixie Dream girl/boy trope: these people can exist in their own non-changing, tumultuous bubbles, but they can inspire some exhilaratingly dodgy life experiences that give you endless insight into your limits. And if you don’t let yourself get carried away, these can sometimes be the best, albeit chancy, experiences of your life.
It’s a theme that Hey Champ! has covered before in one of my favorite 2010 jams, “Cold Dust Girl,” which talks about the intoxicating effects of an aloof girl with a fearless soul. But by the time the band returns to this idea, in sort-of-sequel “Cliché,” they’ve grown tired of the never-ending club kids bent on self destruction.
This idea is best found in the awesome lyrical couplet:
”Casting ghosts/Your heart’s so cold/Eyes once so passionate/Now, Dead Sea Scrolls”
I love that because the singer doesn’t just write off the club kids he meets as some lost cause, but appeals to the prophecy that once burned within, but now lies as an artifact in their eyes. It’s a beautiful phrase matched with a deceptively poppy and upbeat melody.
And I love that type of deceptive arrangement in music; it makes the track very Cut Copy-esque. They’ll get you dancing and drive in the message probably long before you even know it. If you don’t know Hey Champ! catch more of their high quality dance rock at their SoundCloud. Catch a free download while you are there as well.