- In its original context as the opener to Hercules & Love Affair's second album Blue Songs, "Painted Eyes"—originally written for a fashion show and dedicated to Coco Chanel, natch—was the reassuring fake-out easing listeners into Andrew Butler's new world. With a typically androgynous vocal from new addition Aerea Negrot, it kept the string-drenched chugging disco sound of the first LP but its impeccable polish and chirping sequencers hinted at the more overtly electronic, house-influenced sound that the rest of the album often proudly bore. Openly reaching back to the band's older material as it so blatantly does makes it a rather odd choice for the album's next single, but its surprisingly excellent remixes reveal further layers in the band's knotted tree of influences.
Permanent Vacation boy Wolfram turns the track into a bubbling space disco roller, bottling its analogue bass bump into a choked gurgle and blanketing the track's vocal sections in an overwhelmingly grandiose, reverb-saturated church organ. In Flagranti's take is a little more subdued, scuffing up the edges and constructing a loop-based dub version busied up with flamboyant flute trills and other peripheral accents. The b-side, however, is an elegant and careful cover of The XX's "Shelter" sung by Kim Ann Foxman. The cover hints at yet another digression for Hercules, this time into the waters of disco-inflected synth pop as the rubbery bassline and surprisingly few melodic elements ring out into an empty void around Foxman's crystal clear vocals.
TracklistA Painted Eyes
B Shelter
Digital: Painted Eyes (Wolfram Remix)
Digital: Painted Eyes (In Flagranti Remix)