“Kiss of Life” – Friendly Fires

I have my days of unemployment to thank for discovering this song.  Due to no job and no real responsibilities, I got into the habit of staying up super late at night.  And 2am is the token time that MTV (which don’t forget stands for Music Television) actually plays its music videos (I could write another essay about the death and demise of MTV, but it’s just too depressing.  It used to be the shit- and now it has been reduced to the most god-awful TV shows- teenage pregnancies, dating shows involving parents, buses, and terrible one-liners, and let’s not forget the groundbreaking Hills…puke).  I admit the first couple times I saw the beginning of this video, I thought, “WTF” and changed the channel.  And then one night, I gave the song a chance…WOW.  This song is the shit!!!  I’ll tell you why…

The beat- you cannot help but dance and move to this- especially if you have good TV speakers to catch everything.  If you don’t- download it and listen to it in your car or home stereo.  It’s good music.  Something about the message of the song, the video, and the beat reminds me of both Peter Gabriel and Midnight Oil’s “Bed’s are Burning”   This song doesn’t belong in this decade- which is exactly why I love it.

The video- it’s so simple- and yet so weird.  A bunch of tribal-type dressed people on a beach, jammin out.  But the lead singer, the star of the video- apparently didn’t get the “breezy beach wear” memo- he is decked out in a black collared shirt, black pants, and beige loafers with no socks….WHAT THE FUCK.  it’s so funny, but somehow brilliant and it just works.   What also makes this funny is the guy looks like he could be one of Prince William and Henry’s cousins- he should be out riding horses or playing croquet- but here he is, praising the beauties of earth and rockin out on a beach.   I love the way he dances- he obviously doesn’t care what he looks like- he is just letting the music move him however it wants.  We all should do that sometime, just put on a song and dance away…