Ji Nilsson ft Marlene - "Love You Anyway". A choreography of winking lights, shadows convinced to dance. Marlene has a pleasant song to sing; she stands at a microphone in a modern studio, with a snack machine in the hall, trying to ignore the guests. Those winking lights, those dancing shadows, they do not chit-chat. They slink from corner to corner, duck her gaze. She knows she's safe; it's just light. It's just light, she says to herself after the first take. And yet she longs for a break in the session, an exit, a window to look out into the street. What season is it? she asks herself. I've forgotten.

[soundcloud / Thanks Michelle.]

The Boys Next Door - "Shivers". They got into a fight at the jewellery store. "This is such a stupid fight," he said. "Can we just end it? Can we just agree to end it?" She said yes, but they didn't. It was about a charm, a pewter charm, for a charm bracelet. It was a lighthouse. He had offered to get it for her.
      "A lighthouse?" she said, incredulous.
      "It's romantic," he said.
      "It's the opposite of romantic," she replied.
      He didn't understand: "It's searching for love. For true love."
      "Exactly. It's searching. It hasn't found it."
      "But it will find it."
      "How do you know?"
      "Think of a lighthouse. A warm beacon. A light in the night."
      "Endlessly searching, alone on a cliff."
      "It's not alone. It's beloved."
      "It's alone."
      "It's not. You're like my lighthouse. I'm like your lighthouse."
      "I'm not a lighthouse. You might be a lighthouse but I'm not a fucking lighthouse."
      He imagined it hanging from her wrist, suspended in a chain around her neck. He imagined it so clearly - her, the charm, the fleeing ray of blinding light.

[The Boys Next Door are The Birthday Party / buy]

(image by Paul Rumsey)