Spring Fling: Dagny and Madeon
[This article originally appeared as a part of The Yale Herald Audio Issue on Soundcloud.]
https://soundcloud.com/herald-audio/reviews?in=herald-audio/sets/herald-audio-spring-2018
Transcription:
Spring Fling is almost here, and the campus hype machine has already churned out all the hot takes you didn’t know you needed on this year’s headliners.
Cupcakke, we’ve been told, is a violent, vulgar nymphomaniac. Or, maybe she’s a body-positive trailblazer. Here she is on her 2015 single Deepthroat:
[Hump me, fuck me / Daddy better make me choke (you better) / Hump me, fuck me]
And again on her track, Biggie Smalls.
[Shit I could be thin or overweight, won’t bother me / I’m still choose Burger King over broccoli / I love every inch of my body don’t compare me to shawty / Size 7 or 11, I’m a still be a hottie]
A$AP Ferg, the 29-year-old Harlem rapper, is either a visionary of New York hip-hop or a codger stuck in old school misogyny.
[I fucked your bitch, nigga, I fucked your bitch / I fucked your bitch, nigga, I fucked your bitch / She sucked my dick, nigga, she sucked my dick]
These debates make it easy to forget that Spring Fling has other headliners. In addition to Cupcakke and Ferg, Yale will also see shows from Dagny and Madeon, two highly acclaimed European artists with compelling and complicated oeuvres of their own.
Dagny, aged 27, is a Norwegian pop star and certifiable hitmaker. Since 2012 she’s been living in London, and has toured the world with her high-life pop anthems. Her songs are grand like Lorde’s and sensual like Tove Lo’s. Her 2016 single “Backbeat” sounds like the soundtrack to a summer house party, where friends fall in love for the first time.
[Back beat, counting time / Pick it up and tell me if you really wanna dance some more / We’re borderline wasting time / Pick it up and tell me that you love me like you did before / I understand, understand / I been feeling it so long / I’m flying when I’m in your arms]
For all her innocence, Dagny is something of a sexual icon. In 2017, she covered “More, More, More,” the 1976 disco sensation from porn star-turned recording artist Andrea True. The song is about a woman eager to satisfy her lover, and features some not-so-subtle references to the burgeoning adult film industry.
Here’s the original.
[Baby you know / My love for you is real / So take me where you want to / Me and my heart you steal / (More, more, more) How do you like it? How do you like it?]
And here’s Dagny’s cover — bold, brash, and sped up for the modern dancefloor.
[Ooh, how do you like your love? / Oh, oh, oh, oh / More, more, more / How do you like it? / How do you like it? / More, more, more / How do you like it? / How do you like it?]
Dagny’s confidence is something to behold. It’s also something shared by the last act to take Spring Fling: Madeon. At 23-years old, the French DJ is one of the youngest faces of European dance music. He’s been producing hits since he was 19, and his age hasn’t stopped him from learning from his elders. You’ll hear the influence Jamie XX and Giorgio Moroder in his writing, which toes the line between festival fun and dorm-room intimate. Here he is on “Technicolor,” off his 2015 EP.
[Technicolor]
Madeon brings to New Haven the best of European house. It’s music so infectious as to wake up even the most flunged-out Spring Flingers. And, no less, a full four hours after Cupcakke will have taken the stage.
Whether your Spring Fling is spent dancing or groaning, celebrating the lineup we have or begrudging the lineup that could have been, give some love to the less-headlined headliners. And tell me: which side are you on?
[You’re On]
