Planningtorock / Living It Out

DFA

“Living it Out”—perhaps the most unabashedly danceable song on JANINE “PLANNINGTOROCK” ROSTRON’s DFA debut album W—comes on (that is to say, seduces) in just the right ways. The song is all addictive disco, with synthesized string skitterings and Rostron’s voice purring out (she sounds like a futuristic Eartha Kitt here) a perfect melody that somehow gets even better at the chorus. It’s pure pleasure upsurge from beat-driven start to pizzicatto end, the kind of song that lets you know that, amidst Rostron’s many musical idiosyncracies, included is the ability to write a song that simply drags you out onto the dancefloor. The Jackson remix is less dense and, in an odd role reversal for PTR, more off-kilter than her original. The warm, straight ahead disco of the album track is cooled here and things take on a more regimented pace, while Rostron’s vocals have been cut down into breathy, metronomic exhalations. The pizzicato strings fall in a new formation against a tireless, pounding beat, deeply guttural, corkscrewing noises and the taut, anxious feeling of anticipation created by the precisely timed landing of each. The Cosmodelica remix, conversely, rearranges house—by adding bouncing bass near the music’s foreground and giving everything a vaguely more relaxed feel, while somehow maintaining an upbeat pace. Just past the song’s midpoint, the energy—and the depth of sound—kicks up a notch, with all the sonic elements meeting and proceeding apace. The track floats briefly, not unlike the original, on Rostron’s airy vocalizations for a brief period, before picking up right where it left off, toward its joyous, high-spirited end.—Kali Holloway. UK import.  

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