by Oskar Cox-JensenWhat to do with a post-cancer comeback single, your first in four years? Get a crack songwriting team to pen an innovative, glorious modern classic, hinting at personal trauma? Or nick a so-middle-of-the-road-it’s-pedestrian track from a band too obscure to have a Wikipedia entry?
Obviously the latter. ‘2 Hearts,’ written and produced by London outfit Kish Mauve, is hardly the daring departure it’s been heralded as. Its electro bleeps and whirs are awfully polite and incidental, its structure and backing as simple as could be. And there’s something a little embarrassing about a 39-year-old Kylie singing empty teen clichés about love, especially in such a pouting, coquettish, breathless manner. This is the musical equivalent of your maiden aunt putting on her face, throwing a mink fur over her shoulder and mincing off down the kerb.
It’s also rather good. The melody is too repetitive, too asinine, too easy – in other words, it’s perfect pop. It’s under three minutes – always a bonus. And there’s this amazing, redeeming backing ‘whoo!’ in every chorus that reminds me of LCD Soundsystem. But it’s neither as brilliant, nor as irritating, as ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head.’ Tune.
