Poptastic Confessions

Poptastic Confessions

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Why Can't I Be You? by RABBII

Dear Poptastic Readers,

There is a new Swedish duo called R.A.B.B.I.I., which stands for Revolutions Are Best Before Initial Inception. And you might recognize the members Felix and Jo because they were in Le Kid.


R.A.B.B.I.I. are Jo and Felix

The new song is called "Why Can't I Be You?" and no, it's not a remake of The Cure song. Instead, it's a bit of a hypnotizing number.



The video shows the joys and sorrows of young women in love. It makes you remember how hard teenage love can be ...







Edit: In my initial post, I wrote that I didn't like the lyrics "I wanna kill you." Even though I understood where the lyrics were coming from. Today, Jo wrote this on RABBII's Facebook page (which I hope you will "like" their page).

”Why Can’t I Be You” is about me, you and everyone else. It's about the worst part of me. How I have such a hard time feeling happy for some people’s success. How my envy makes me feel I want to kill them, tear their heart out and scream ”It should’ve been me!!”. At the same time, I love them, I admire them, and all I wish is that I was them. The weird mixture of love and hate, that I wish I didn’t feel. But do.

We’re so eager to show the best sides of ourselves to the world, but that’s really just a big f@%#ing lie. We all have these small, petty feelings, we all sometimes wish that bad things happen to good people just because we can’t stand others having what we don’t. Or maybe it’s just me, and I’m the worst human on this planet.

It’s also a feminist statement. How extremely and enormously f@%#ed up it is that women have bigger issues with this. As always, the privileged have everything to win if they can make the minorities fight each other instead of the common enemy. That’s why we need feminism, socialism and why we need it now!

It’s our take on how social gender is our enemy. On a more deep level it represent the complex relations between women and my own experience and feelings about how it makes me feel bad. It’s complicated. In a world like this women have to fight harder than men in almost everything. While most men pat each other on the back saying ”good job” coz they know that their privilege makes room for all of them at the top, women have to fight each other for the few spots in the limelight that we get.

I wanted the video to show women feeling envy, love and hate at the same time. How destructive this pattern is, and how nearly impossible it can be to free yourself from it. There’s no story, just a feeling that I hope emerges from it. Hope you like it!

I really like the song and the video. I think they've done a great job. But at the same time, I am still left uncomfortable with the lyrics. So I think it's important to remember that: Both can be true. I like it and I don't. Kinda like the lyrics themselves.



Märta, Jo (Johanna), Helena and Felix were Le Kid

Now what does this mean for Le Kid? Well, the future is uncertain. Germany just released their album "Oh Alright", which includes new singles like "We Are Young" and "Physical" as well as brand-new track called "I Don't Dance." Amazon.de says "I Don't Dance" is the new single. We'll wait to see if there is any promotion.

I'm not sure when RABBII's track will be available for purchase. But I'll keep you posted.

Cheers then,
—Davearama

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