365 Days of Song Recommendations: March 14

Love Is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix by James Murphy) — David Bowie

Bowie released an EP in 2013 called, The Next Day Extra, and buried on that album is an absolute gem too few have heard. It fits this week’s “break-up” theme, but in a slightly less literal manner.

Though the original track is also great, the James Murphy version is far more interesting. The track kicks off with a few somewhat offbeat claps that turn into syncopated rimshots — homage to Steve Reich’s Clapping Music. And then we’re off. The vintage Murphy synth pops in, and we’re fully in an early LCD Soundsystem song right now.

It’s the darkest hour, you’re twenty two
The voice of youth, the hour of dread
The darkest hour and your voice is new
Love is lost, lost is love

Ah, that voice. Haunting, desperate, near the end. At almost exactly the song’s halfway point, it becomes more Bowie than Murphy. The layers have been built, and we’re in it for the long haul. 10 minutes, 26 seconds to be exact.

It’s a perfect remix, with just the right energy to wake you up or settle you into a night. But there’s also depth here, the bitter taste of regret blended with nostalgia for the past. A defiance, a doubling down on the act of choosing art over love. Or at least that’s what I hear.

The older Bowie examines what it meant for younger Bowie to choose art over love, breaking up not just a blossoming relationship but also any future possibility of love over art. For music fans, this was a choice we celebrate, but it’s worth mentioning that Bowie’s final acts had a hint of regret and darkness that puts this choice into question.

I’ve read other, far different interpretations of Love is Lost, that it’s anger at a young girl who succeeded at ending her own life. That might be true, but I prefer mine when you consider the dark, emotional textures present in his final album, Blackstar. Perhaps it’s both, a love sacrificed for art and a life lost over the subsequent heartbreak.

In any event, this is an astounding collaboration worth many rotations.

It’s the darkest hour, you’re twenty two
The voice of youth, the hour of dread
The darkest hour and your voice is new
Love is lost, lost is love
Your country’s new
Your friends are new
Your house and even your eyes are new
Your maid is new and your accent too
But your fear is as old as the world
Say goodbye to the thrills of life
Where love was good, no love was bad
Wave goodbye to the life without pain
Say hello
You’re a beautiful girl
Say hello to the lunatic men
Tell them your secrets
They’re like the grave
Oh, what have you done?
Oh, what have you done?
Love is lost, lost is love
You know so much, it’s making you cry
You refuse to talk but you think like mad
You’ve cut out your soul and the face of thought
Oh, what have you done?
Oh, what have you done?
Oh, what have you done?
Oh, what have you done?

~

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