Miles Kane, sometimes more accurately known as Alex Turner’s better half in The Last Shadow Puppets, is no stranger to going solo. With two albums already under his belt, Colour of the Trap and Don’t Forget Who You Are, Kane has secured a fairly ironclad fanbase that was already built-in with enthusiasts of The Last Shadow Puppets. That enthusiasm is about to augment tenfold now that the Lana Del Rey acolytes have gotten wind that she’s helped Kane co-write the first single for his forthcoming third album, Coup de Grace.
Co-written with Del Rey in her honorary home turf of Los Angeles, the influence of the recently bum-rushed singer is apparent throughout the hippy-dippy, forlorn lyrics that lament, “My baby’s always threatenin’ to leave/You can do that or be here/Almost brought me down to my knees/You said I’ve never been clear/Honey, you better believe/Now that there’s nothing to fear/You can just leave.” With that certain girl group quality to it that combines conflicting elements of neediness and independence, “Loaded” also finds Kane at his most Marc Bolan-esque, vocally speaking (for one can’t imagine him dressing with too much bombast for his impending summer tour).
The presence of Del Rey’s songwriting style is also most prevalent in the description, “Racing like a psycho/Walking on a tightrope/Funky like a monkey/With my makeup running/Too proud to find no time to breathe.” Del Rey recently ad libbed, “Like a psycho incognito posing as a real singer” during “Gods and Monsters” at her Antwerp show, which leads one to believe that she’s got a certain fascination with the concept behind the word of late, especially when considering how many she attracts.
Indeed, the narrative of the song highlights the type of psychopathy that comes with wanting to fully possess the one you love, particularly when there’s a shared dependency on drugs: an all or nothing approach, if you will. Similar to “Heroin” off Del Rey’s last album, Lust for Life, “Loaded” details one person’s desire to remain on the drugs as the other wishes to flee and get clean. Kane warns his lover, “You look away as they crucify me/Sleeping in the wreckage/Loaded like a weapon…I prophesize you’ll miss the highs with me.” So basically, if Mark Renton was an eloquent songwriter, this would be his anthem.
Similarly, he finds his lover’s pathetic desire to shake the dependency an exercise in futility, half-jeering, “You can paint it all black ’cause you’re never gonna get it clean.” Plus, it’s the drugs that keep them together. Captain and Tennille, in fact, should have probably titled their song/life mantra, “Drugs Will Keep Us Together” instead. And, like Marc Bolan, Kane seems to be just a jeepster for this girl’s love, likely modeled with a Del Rey prototype in mind (Del Rey herself has famously written a large portion of her songs about an ex with addiction issues). In short, he has a lot to give Del Rey credit for in lending her feminine, 60/70s-centric perspective to one of Kane’s best releases to date. Oh, and one supposes it’s nice that Jamie T helped write it as well.
