Although Romy Madley Croft, better known as the xx’s Romy or just Romy, still has yet to give us that solo album she teased back in 2020, at least she keeps releasing singles to placate listeners until the full-length debut arrives. And it all started with “Lifetime” almost a complete three years ago (a “lifetime” ago, as it were). It was with that specific single that Romy established herself as an artist with a jubilant message to convey. In contrast to much of her work with the xx, there is less a tone of moroseness and more a tone of ebullience in the singles she’s bequeathed us with thus far (e.g. “Lights Out” and “Strong,” both a collaboration with Fred again..). “Enjoy Your Life” proves no exception to the thus far customary rule for Romy’s solo work.
Funnily enough, Romy isn’t the first Brit in recent years to tell us to “Enjoy Your Life.” In 2019, MARINA told us to do the same on Love + Fear. Sure, MARINA is technically Welsh, but it’s all part of the same island. In any case, it seems no coincidence that the shittier things get, the more people want to cling to positivity as best as they can (and, as another British bird from the Spice Girls claimed, “All you need is positivity”). Indeed, it seems positivity is on an upswing despite all evidence displaying that people should feel quite the contrary. Yet it’s all part of human nature, not just in terms of denial as a coping mechanism, but also the idea of “endurance” and “survival.” Because part of being able to endure through nonstop experiences of trauma—both concentrated and collective—is to put a “positive spin” on things. In the wake of the coronavirus lockdowns, it’s been: the world got a chance to stop for a moment and “take stock.” Apparently, though, not long enough to realize that the way we exist is fundamentally designed to doom us all. In any case, Romy, just as MARINA before the pandemic hit, doesn’t think that should keep you from having a good time. After all, this life is allegedly the only one we’ve got, so we might as well make the most of it…no matter how objectively shitty it might seem (especially to people who aren’t pop stars).
But, similarly to Romy, MARINA admits that writing her own “Enjoy Your Life” was a way to stave off some of her overarching feelings of negativity, having penned it during a time when she was extremely depressed. During the promotion cycle of Love + Fear, she told Vogue of the song, “I just literally didn’t see the point in life. I didn’t understand what life was about. I definitely felt very depressed and didn’t understand why life was good, literally functioning day-to-day thinking, ‘Just get through today.’” So sure, her lyrics were more of a self-pep talk than anything else, urging her to “enjoy the now” without constantly worrying so much about the future. Appreciate what you have and try to see the beauty in the breakdown, etc. As for Romy’s take on the message, she also presents it with correspondingly upbeat music. And, in contrast to her usual style, she does something a bit different here musically, favoring the sound embodied by 90s dance beats (with help from co-producers Jamie xx, Fred again.. and Stuart Price) while also managing to incorporate Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s “La Vita” into the song (as well as Oby Onyioha’s “funkadelic” “Enjoy Your Life”). In point of fact, it’s Glenn-Copeland who played such a pivotal role in imbuing Romy with any sense of positivity. For, as she remarked of using the sample, “When I heard the line, ‘My mother says to me enjoy your life’… I was speechless. Those few words felt like the most simple and disarming sentence. Ever since I was eleven, I’ve been aware of and drawn to the phrase, life is short. I’ve felt inspired by people who I’ve seen react to this by trying to see the positives in life, even when things are going wrong and times are hard.”
Romy, however, goes on to admit, “As much as I’d love to naturally be one of those people, I’m not always able to do this myself and often get in my own head and my own way, so sometimes a reminder goes a long way. Glenn’s lyrics were a direct connection to what had been a very quiet, private thought. It resonated especially deeply as it is because of my mum passing away when I was eleven that this perspective on living life was even a part of me.” Incidentally, Glenn-Copeland also adds in his song that, “La vita è dolce” a.k.a. “Life is sweet.” Even if bittersweet (as The Verve knows). That much is unwittingly captured in the accompanying video. Directed by Romy’s wife, Vic Lentaigne, the visuals are clearly personal. Hence, the “vintage home movie” effect often incorporated into it (look out, Lana Del Rey). And then there’s also the images of Romy thumbing through old photo albums when she’s still a child with her mother, in those years before she died. The aching for those memories to be present instead of past is negated by Romy’s insistence upon living exuberantly—what her mother would have wanted for her, to be sure.
Scenes of Romy at the ocean and other various bodies of water play an important role in the baptismal nature of a song such as this. For every time one falls prey to negative thoughts, they can “be born anew” with a positive outlook (in addition to the presence of dogs, many dogs)…no matter how ephemeral it may be. Of course, with existence itself being so ephemeral, it doesn’t really matter much to the universe what “state” you decide to be in from one day to the next. All Romy can say is that, “I hope this song celebrates and shares the words that Glenn said so beautifully and my reaction to it and hopefully uplifts a dancefloor along the way,” adding, “I hope you know I would never want to tell anyone how to feel or to pretend to feel good when they don’t, I know how that feels.” Thus, “Enjoy Your Life” is more of a gentle reminder on Romy’s part than a “dancefloor edict,” if you will.
And, talking of the dancefloor, it appears several times throughout the video, with Romy interspersing these moments amid scenes of her driving along (in the passenger seat) with the wind blowing in her hair or riding on a boat or soaking up the sun on the beach (a moment that comes full-circle when a photo of Romy’s own mother doing the same appears at the end). There are times when Romy herself is the architect of fun on that dancefloor, playing DJ in a far more adept way than Paris Hilton. Like Robyn once said in a song title, Romy finds herself “dancing on my own again/Anxiety, my old friend/Since when will you try something new?” That “something new” being to enjoy her life and embrace whatever comes her way with a positive attitude. After all, as she says in the song, “I made a promise to my mother/To stop running from my problems.”
Or, as MARINA phrased it, “Sit back and enjoy your problems/You don’t always have to solve them.” The world has clearly taken this approach to heart as everyone sits back and watches it burn, resigned to the day when it might finally explode. So yes, why not just enjoy your life while it lasts? God or whoever knows that generations after this probably won’t be able to delude themselves as easily…or perhaps they will because “shite” will be all they’ve ever known.
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