Single Review: Foxes – ‘Body Talk’
2 min read
Though she lists Patti Smith and Bjork as influences, Louisa Allen (a.k.a. Foxes) lacks the sense of experimentation that defines the work of those two legends. Her new single Body Talk might be inoffensive enough, but it leaves little in its wake, and by the time Allen has finished doing her electro pop thing for three and a half mercifully brief minutes, one is left feeling both uninspired and irritated.
The tone is one of upbeat, sun-drenched wistfulness, and though nothing if not energetic, the lyric suffers from a reliance on clichés. Hoary old phrases like ‘now I feel free/gonna keep it like that’ and ‘all you gotta do is let it go’ sound tired even before they’ve fully made their way past Allen’s lips. Not a single line sticks.
The melodies are recycled and repetitive, and the glossy electro work feels horrendously uninspired. One never gets the sense that this was music crafted for any other purpose than to make a quick buck. It’s a casual exploitation of listener laziness. It’s unassuming feel reduces its potential to offend or upset anyone, but it also means the song comes across as the kind of thing that could have been dreamt up in a board meeting.
In short, Body Talk is not necessarily the worst thing you will hear this year. It’s just one of the laziest. It’s a dull, uninspired number that ultimately one really shouldn’t even bother getting angry over. Drivel like this gets churned out all the time, after all.
