And the truth is you can't hide from the truth
And the truth hurts because the truth is all there is
I realised some time ago that I would have to let you go
May not be true to see that you would return one day
But in your present state you may as well not be here at all
You wear a thin disguise, it's from yourself you hide
Just take a look at us, we are heading for a fall.
Links with yesterday’s Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan track might throw up the theme of a fatal attraction, but the comparison is more a musical one, showing how a slow-falling chord and baseline can be a powerful way to pull our attention. Here the jazz-style tinkly piano riff is in fact a sample from Galt MacDermot’s number Coffee Cold, from the 1966 album Shapes of Rhythm on the Kilmarnock label. MacDermot is a Canadian-American theatrical composer, his biggest hit being the musical Hair.
But the song on which it appears here, The Truth, comes from one of two trip-hop concept albums by Handsome Boy Modeling School, aka the hip-hop producer duo of Dan the Automator (Gorillaz, Dr. Octagon, Deltron 3030) and Prince Paul (Stetsasonic, De La Soul, Gravediggaz, A Prince Among Thieves). This, their first in 1999, titled So … How’s Your Girl? includes a host of guest performers including Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Sean Lennon, Miho Hatori and Beastie Boys’ Mike D, and the concept is all a parody of on vain, consumerist, materialistic, and self-absorbed members of upper class society, such as supermodels and people from old money. But on this track the stars are Róisín Murphy, formerly of Moloko and now a solo artist, who sings beautifully, and delivers with heartfelt sense of tragedy, and rapper J-Live’s uncompromising middle-eight section. Somehow with all these styles and influences, from the world of jazz, musicals, dance and hip-hop it’s a combination that finds a musical veracity.
But let's enjoy a dash of the original piece by MacDermot:
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