ALEXANDER GEIST
Bad Language 7″

Haute Areal, 2012

• favorite:

  “Bad Language”

• flavors:

  Roses, cigarettes, champagne, poppers

RATING:

TRACK LIST:

1. Bad Language
2. What I Mean To You

The new boy-hero of pop stardom has emerged. He’s wearing a shocking pink Versace suit, his make-up is flawless, and he sings with a kind of self-assured swagger that is unique to the very well-hung.

Alexander Geist’s darling debut single, produced by depraved ex-pat teenage genius Joey Hansom, opens with a pastiche of Donna Summer and Sylvester, locating Alexander as the true heir to disco’s legacy. “Bad Language” is both sassy and melancholy. He is at once immaculately coiffed, superficially cool, and gorgeous, and still somehow bratty, adenoidal, and rebellious.

The song is facetious; the hook in the chorus is “Your bad language won’t help / this fucking situation.” Amid the swirling synths and backup singers’ harmonies, Alexander paints a picture of desolation, reminding us that we all die eventually, and that, until then, we have to dance.

The B-side, “What I Mean To You,” dresses euro house up in R&B finery. Alexander’s lilting English crooning is well-matched in the arrangements, playing off the unabashed funk of saxophones and swirling vintage synth sounds. It’s sexy and mysterious and dark and totally serious. He could sing instead about pretty girls on the street, lovely weather, or something. Instead, Alexander twists pop music’s arm behind its back, gets it into a sleeper hold, and talks some sense into it. The sound of heartache is neither plaintive nor angry, but in-control, articulate, and open-throated.