Is it legal to marry a single in this country? I don’t mean a single person, I mean an actual musical single, a record, a vinyl disc! Probably not, so I’ll just have to declare my undying love for “Jacqueline” publicly, the new one from The Danphes. Why? Well, it’s everything I have been looking for in a song, my perfect sonic partner.
A neat collection of jangling cascades and shifting moods, beats, and lyrical poeticism, it is cool, classy, tasteful, elegant, and eloquent. Who doesn’t need some of that in their life? Not only is the track as infectious as hell, but it is also built from pure emotion, tugging heartstrings and evoking feelings as it shifts between the upbeat and the understated, the moody and the melodic, while the lyrics struggle with the bitter-sweet inner conflicts of deciding to stay with someone and letting them go.
I’ve had feelings for similar sonic sirens before, such as The Jasmine Minks, and The June Brides, and I even got hung up on The Gigilo Aunts, but this feels like the real thing.
If their debut single “Heartbreak High” set new benchmarks for this kind of shimmering indie, “Jacqueline” might have put The Danphes in a tight spot. After all, how do you follow that? Well, I’m going to make sure I keep an ear out for this band and damn well find out.
Full disclosure: if this song suddenly disappears from the public realm, it is because “Jacqueline” (the single, that is) said yes, and we eloped together.
