John Sico

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HeartbeatsThe Knife

“Heartbeats” – The Knife
(Words/music: The Knife, available on Deep Cuts, V2 2005)

Two very specific parts of “Heartbeats” cut through to me every time. This is not to slight the beautifully hypnotic synthesizer groove or the song’s crafted images, but both moments that leave me breathless come from the vocal delivery. The first comes in the second half of each line in the hook where Karin Dreijer seemingly lets the melody float higher for a word or two. For most of the song, Dreijer sings in a tone as thick as the synthesizers accompanying her. It’s not quite a falsetto, but it achieves a similar effect – her voice sounds lighter and higher for this moment like a dancer nimbly leaping across the stage. Like the most gifted dancers, Dreijer’s voice feels less like a jump and more like a hovering glide that lingers a split second longer than gravity should allow. It’s a brief trick, as Dreijer returns back to her normal cadence at the beginning of the next line.

It’s this momentary hover plus the modulation upward in the bridge that sets up the knock-out punch: the “yeah-ah” vocal in the second chorus. In a song that blurs its lustful images with foreboding overtones, this vocal radiates with joy. When woven in with the hook at irregular intervals, it overlaps with different notes each time, yet no part feels out-of-place. Moreover, where Dreijer’s voice hovers on those couple of notes in the hook, this vocal soars unrestrained. In a song with plenty of melodic gems, this bit sticks with me days after hearing the song.

More on The Knife: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

Love this song, and love the description even more.

Source: somesongsconsidered