MILB: "STUNNER" by Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip

Sometimes you stumble across a group that is so random that you have to love them.  I feel that way about Dan le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip.  I first heard one of their songs back in 2007, I think, on a British TV Show called "Soccer AM".  (Weird that they call it Soccer AM, and not Football AM.  I digress.)  Their song was "Thou Shalt Always Kill" and I thought it was awesome.  Pip is a poet, not a rapper.  Dan le Sac puts beats to the thing and create a mash of goodness that can't be pigeonholed as rap or spoken word.

Anyways, this week the finally released another song.  "STUNNER" is much darker than "Thou Shalt Always Kill" and "Beat that my Heart skipped", their other song that I adore.  This one is just full a on assault.  The fantastic "chorus" of "The World Don't revolve around you but it should/ not saying you're perfect but you're really really good."

The beginning of the song is Scroob rapping a capella, "I know it sounds weird/ I do want you to look back on this and smile, but/ I kind of want that smile to be through tears."  Dark, but also an interesting take.  Everyone wants to be remembered happily, but also kind of want the person who's left you to be sad that it ended.

The lyrics are just on another level.  "That light at the end of the tunnel was a fire."  "Don't need the world to love me, I just need you to."  "If Romance is dead/ blame the hopeless romantics."  Or my favorite one: "I wore my heart on my sleeve and you stole my (expletive) shirt."  This is just a verbal assault for 3 minutes and 59 seconds.  The only time it lets up is during the break, but even then the tension still remains as Dan le Sac's beat and music continue the attack on your senses.

It could be considered a love song, I suppose, if Stephen King wrote love songs.  The music is hard, and there are quite a few curse words in it, so don't listen to it around kids.  It very much reminds me of the first time I heard industrial music back in the early 90s.  It's jarring, and unsettling, but that's one of the things that music can, and should do.  It shouldn't be bubblegum pop, with no meaning or depth to it.  There needs to be something visceral in the music to make you feel one thing or another.   If you heard this song on the radio (which you won't) then you'd definitely remember it.  It's not something that you can listen to passively.  Songs that I think are like that are NIN "Head Like a Hole", Filter's "Hey Man Nice Shot" and to a lesser extent all of Minor Threat's songs.

It may not be to your liking, though.  If you don't like it, that's ok.  However, give Dan le Sac and Scroobius Pip a listen to on some of their other songs.  "Beat that my heart skipped" might be more to your style, or even "Thou Shalt Always Kill."  All I know is that I've listened to "STUNNER" probably 40 times since I downloaded it last weekend, and I will probably listen to it even move this weekend.  Not because it speaks directly to me, but because I dig the song.