Calling it the latest addition to the “Dance Fever universe” (and yes, it’s lovely that albums can be billed as universes now, too), “Mermaids” is a track that was originally slated to be on Florence + the Machine’s fifth album before being cut. Clearly, that decision was weighing on Florence Welch as she decided to give fans her second single of the year, following her cover of No Doubt’s “Just A Girl” for Yellowjackets. And why shouldn’t she? For the moody, atmospheric tone of “Mermaids” fits right in with the rest of the songs on Dance Fever, now out as an album with said single on it called Dance Fever (Complete Edition).
For those hoping the song was inspired by the 1990 film of the same name starring Cher, Winona Ryder and (Yellowjacket) Christina Ricci, one might be disappointed. The song instead takes blatant inspiration from Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s 2015 Polish film, The Lure (called Córki dancingu in its original language), itself based on the more brutal version of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. The mermaid sisters in The Lure also happen to be vampires. Because, in this day and age, one has to mix mythologies to keep audiences interested. Named Silver (Marta Mazurek) and Golden (Michalina Olszańska), they pop out of the ocean in the Warsaw of the 1980s to find themselves becoming stripper stars at an “adult entertainment” nightclub. Billed as “The Lure,” they conduct their act in a giant water-filled glass (à la Dita Von Teese)—as they should. Although Golden has her eyes on the prize of ultimately swimming to America, Silver has been distracted by Mietek (Jakub Gierszal), one of the band members who performs at the club. Golden, however, hasn’t got hearts in her eyes by any means, staying true to her cannibal nature by eating one of the patrons of the club from the get-go. So it is that Florence + the Machine not only opens “Mermaids” with a siren-like cry, but commences the first verse with, “I thought that I was hungry for love/Maybe I was just hungry for blood.”
Alluding to Andersen and Smoczyńska’s take on mermaid life, Florence + the Machine also mentions how “all the mermaids have sharp teeth/Razor blades all in your feet.” Silver certainly knows something about that level of pain, swapping out her tail for legs as she endures a shoddy surgical procedure to remove her true essence so that Mietek might take her more seriously as a love interest. Rather than what he actually sees her as: a novelty fuck.
Co-produced with Glass Animals’ Dave Bayley, the overarching beat of “Mermaids” drops after “in your feet” to reveal a dramatic, all-consuming sonic landscape. One in which Florence + the Machine then lays out a certain parallel between the drunken British girl (“And the world is so much wilder than you think/You haven’t seen nothing till you seen an English girl drink”) and the fresh-from-the-sea mermaid. As she describes trying to find her own “sea legs” whilst walking through the rain-soaked abyss of night, Florence sings, “I remember falling through these streets/Somewhat out of place, if not for the drunkenness.” A mermaid, too, might be mistaken for a drunk girl, looking out of place as a result of her awkward, unsteady gait. Making her all the more vulnerable to predatory male behavior seeking to take advantage of a woman in a “compromised” state.
What he couldn’t know, of course, is that he’s in for a rude awakening should he actually choose to approach. As Florence phrases it, “And with your mermaid hair and your teeth so sharp/You crawled from the sea to break that sailor’s heart.” Not just break it, but devour it (“They come to drink, they come to dance/To sacrifice a human heart”). At least in Golden’s case, who isn’t foolish enough to actually fall in love with a mortal the way Silver is. So enamored of someone as undeserving and deadbeat as Mietek that she can’t see the carnage that’s brewing. Indeed, one can imagine the lyric, “And the dance floor is filling up with blood/But, oh, Lord, you’ve never been so in love” fitting in quite seamlessly into a scene of Silver dancing with Mietek.
More than just an homage to the villainous (read: complex) mermaid of Danish and Polish lore, Florence engages in her usual knack for recalling moments of her “drunk era.” Not all of which were so bad as she rehashes, “It was not all pain and pavements slick with rain/And shining under lights from shitty clubs and doing shitty drugs/And hugging girls that smelt like Britney Spears and coconuts.” That Britney Spears nod being a moment of pure Proustian lyrical genius (comparable to when she’s also name-checked in MARINA’s “Purge the Poison”). For few apart from millennials can understand the power of Britney in the 00s being so pervasive that her manifold perfume lines were scenting every acolyte of the pop star. Seducing or repelling, depending on the “receiver” of the scent. Just as is the case with a mermaid in pursuit of her “love object.” Like Silver with Mietek, the pursuit isn’t always going to prove successful, with the worst of fates for any mermaid being unrequited love.
But until realizing the love isn’t actually returned (though the lust is), a mermaid like Silver can remain in her “cheerful oblivion.” A term that gets appropriately repeated throughout “Mermaids.” And it also applies to the vibe exuded by an English drunk girl (or any drunk girl, for that matter)—living blithely for the night until the stark sobriety of the morning comes.
Considering all of the Dance Fever “mood boards” Florence + the Machine has revealed to fans on her social media, it’s no surprise that The Lure should also enter into the visuals and conversations of this universe. After all, the original title for the movie was going to be Daughters of the Dance. Now, it might as well be Daughters of Dance Fever. Such is the power of homage.
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