Song of the Day: Jenny Hval – “Year of Love”
Released: February 7, 2022
Album: Classic Objects (out 3/11/22)
Label: 4AD
Packaging thoughtful questions about the patriarchy and femininity into a spectacularly fresh art pop sound, Jenny Hval has been one of the most consistently rewarding musicians of the 21st century. On her latest single, Hval scrutinizes her own assimilation to the patriarchal institution of marriage. Musically the song mixes elements of disco, reggae, and art pop, sounding like a slightly funkier version of the Hval of past records. Her new album, Classic Objects, is out March 11th on 4AD records.
Lyrics
We were married on a rainy day, isn’t that how the song goes?
I wore black jeans and codeine,
I guess I wanted to make sure I seemed “relaxed”.
“It’s just for contractual reasons”, I explained, signing the papers,
as if I truly believed that a contract was further from the institution
than the industrial happiness complex.
In the year of love I signed a deal with patriarchy.
Now watch me step into the place where you can see me: Look at me.
You think I’m different but I’m a stagehand.
Look, it’s there, under the ring, the imprint on my skin.
A year later I’m on stage when a man proposes to a woman right in front of me,
in the middle of a song I thought I knew what was about.
I am holding a disco flashlight.
It is meant to make the audience feel like multitudes of colours
that belong to nobody in particular, that they share between their bodies,
but now all it does is light up a proposal, a normcore institution.
I am giving it my voice, but then again, I already did.
In the year of love I did what I never thought I would,
and you may think I’m different, but listen,
all contracts can be sung with my voice, I’m just a stagehand.
Look, it’s there, under the ring, the imprint on my skin.