Tynan's Anger

Arts & Culture Commentary from a Loving Digital Skeptic

[SONGS OF THE DECADE] #8 Electric Six – Danger! High Voltage!

Posted on | December 23, 2009 | No Comments

SONGS OF THE DECADE #8

[For more info, read the Ground Rules of The Song of The Decade List]

Electric Six – Danger! High Voltage! (2003)

When I saw the Dead Weather at the Bowery Ballroom this past spring, I heard a group of NYU students debating, six years after this song’s release, whether it was, in fact, Jack White singing in this song. The answer, of course, is yes he was, just like he played guitar on “Seven Nation Army” and was Meg’s ex-husband, not her biological brother. More impressive to me was the longevity of this song’s appeal even among the much more accomplished catalog of songs where Jack White is front and center. As popular as it was with critics in 2003, it will always be more popular with the fans who have heard it and have a looser rope when it comes to assessing cred.

If you didn’t have a sense of humor, you didn’t survive this decade, which is perhaps why Electric Six’s groundbreaking ability to make you laugh and dance at the same time has stayed so timely. Electric Six is destined (perhaps doomed) to be the Deep Purple of dance rock revival circa 2003: pioneers on the level of more popular acts like LCD Soundsystem and Interpol, but mainly remembered for one hit song. You wouldn’t know it, but the Electric Six has been the most prolific of their original peers. They haven’t been the most creative, and have been better when they haven’t tried to be. The band’s ethos seems to be if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, taken to its most preposterous pop extreme. I don’t need Electric Six to do anything new, and they don’t need to do anything new, either. One hit song is all that matters, and even if saying so has become a joke, Electric Six effectively took it seriously with this decade’s most fun rock song.

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