2011 me, monster me. I don’t want to be that person. I can’t. Really. Sooner rip out my own intestines, sway them around in a non-sexy sombre striptease. Latch onto the sprinkler system, swing out of the suffocating sex club of my mind. Smash through the plate glass window, get smushed by a semi. It all reads like a list cos its my contingency plan. One of those in.case.of.fire.bust.this.shit.up scenarios. I say I can’t go back. Really, I can’t. And I don’t think Niki and The Dove want to be their 2011 selves, monster selves–either. Could be the reason behind their shift in style. Second slice through the eardrum, it’s pretty dramatic. Disco Naivete calls it a shift away from their #strongwoman songs. I call it a downshift in gears so your little heart-engine doesn’t go boom.boom.motherfucking.bust. Being 2011 me, Niki and The Dove them is exhausting. All that energy escaping out your cries, eats at your mind-eye like entropy

For every footstep, it’s getting harder to turn back
And did I ever know where I came from?
And do I know where I’m heading at?
For every footstep,
It’s getting harder to look back oh

____________
THERE IS A VIDEO FOR THIS SONG. BUT THE BAND HAS BLOCKED IT FOR NON-US EYES. SO FOR OUR INTERNATIONAL READERS AND WRITERS (LIKE MYSELF), WE WILL USE THE SOUNDCLOUD LINK INSTEAD. BOO, BAND, BOO.

2011 me, oh DJ Ease My Mind. Cos I can’t fucking doing it myself. My heart’s a drummer. Sometimes it beats a gentle roar. Sometimes it beats so hard I’m smacked over by my own arteries. Blood pouring out my mouth. Gasping. Reminding myself this is what makes me human. All this hot weakness I’m heaving out an unhappy head. Have to keep myself from hi-fiveing a heart that’s hitting my lungs and whispering to downbeat bronchi yo.stop.breathing.

Oh I love the rhythm, the pounding of my heart
I’m a drum, I’m a drum now
It is what makes me human

Instinct was a dark as fuck album. Not a lot of people got that. Yeah, it got your heart pumping with high energy. Made your blood bounce around. But all that bellicose beauty was belied by beats that beat you down a different path so you weren’t falcon punched by all the outbursts of black heartedness it took to make those songs. And to feel those songs. This was an album about sleeping with lions, consciously. Running into foxes in the wood as they fight for who’s going to feast on you first. Of hearts like eagles. Yeah, they soar. But they are also vicious. Rip a prey’s guts out in a second. And Niki and The Dove are peaceniks of the spirit, sure. So they want to be. So did I. So do I. But so many of the people in their lives became prey the closer they got. Disassociation. Darkness. Falling from the sky to gut a lover. Damn. Who the fuck needs that.

It was such a long long long time ago
In another life
If I look so different then
It’s because I was smiling

__________

Instinct saved me. Really, I can say that. But now, now 2015 me, Niki and The Dove them want to find that time when songs shot light into our bootyshaking ass. Sutured us up with the sun in our stomachs. Our eyes beaming like strobe lights of come hither, let me stroke your hair and kiss you softly. Do I think Play It on The Radio will go viral? Probably not. Do I want their whole new LP to be in this vein? Nope. Do I totally get why they made this song? Absolutely.

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