It’s a fascinating listen, the new long-player from Berlin collective Bodi Bill. Sometimes, I’d go so far as to say it’s utterly baffling. But I mean this in a very good way indeed.
Quite unexpectedly, its opening track ‘Be Sure‘ has a melody that, if you stripped away the lo-fi electro backing, almost sounds as if it could have come from an early album by The Cure. Of course, though, the fact that it does have that backing means it sounds bugger all like The Cure, so you’ll have to use your imagination to get what I mean! And I have no doubt that you will.
The second track ‘Self Improvements‘ has that ‘2am in Soho’ feel to it and appears to be about plastic surgery and the present bodily fashion trends that certain TV shows and other media have convinced the younger generation that they should have, with lyrics such as “The public eye has drilled a hole into her soul then turned away/They had her waiting outside afraid that it might rain/Did she really believe that God would slip her secret notes again/No-one cares for your tan/Or your self-improvements, no.”
It’s not always easy to gauge exactly what points singer Fabian Fenk is trying to make in his songs, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. Not one jot. Because many of the lyrics here display a delightfully playful use of the English language. Nowhere is this more apparent than on the recent single ‘Loophole Travelling‘ which, as well as being practically impossible to NOT dance to, contains moments of pure gold wordsmithery such as “A pilot and a dinosaur on a double date… means business.” If that’s not a mark of genius, I don’t know what is!
In terms of the music on offer throughout I Love U I Do, there’s a healthy rejection of ‘rest on your laurels stability’. There are literally hundreds of artists whose legacy can be felt at some point. Even on my very first listen, as well as the aforementioned Cure, I noticed possible nods to Roni Size, Marvin Gaye, TV On The Radio, The War On Drugs, The Beta Band, Pere Ubu, Arcade Fire and Jean-Michel Jarre. And the fabulous ‘Big Gong Sounds‘ has a slight reggae feel to it without sounding like any other artists from that genre, which is a highly impressive feat to pull off. Later on, ‘Paradise‘ veers towards Beck‘s ‘Loser‘ territory but, crucially, is equally effective.
It’s 10 years since the last Bodi Bill record, What, and it seems that Fenk’s recent role as a first-time father (at the start of the pandemic) has very much shaped the making of I Love U I Do. They say that becoming a parent often inspires a new lease of life, and that would appear to be the case here, as Bodi Bill now sound more alive than they ever did. What a great record.
