Miss Kittin & the Hacker: Two

Miss Kittin & the Hacker

Label: Nobodys Bizness

Miss Kittin, we need to talk. I don’t want to sound harsh, but the passion just isn’t there anymore. I don’t get the feeling that you really care about us; lately it just seems like you’re on autopilot, like you’re distant and thinking about something else. Maybe you’re feeling the pressures of age and you’re worried about pretty young things like Alice Glass usurping your throne. I understand it, I really do, but this just isn’t working anymore.

I remember when you used to sing like you were doing something sinful, when every line of your delivery was coated in lust and heat. On I Com you sounded like your namesake, purring when the mood was right, hissing when you needed to communicate something darker. But on Two, the vocals are flat, monotonous and without life. It could be the Hacker’s fault in part, since the production is overwhelmingly stale, stuck in limbo between the lost eras of house and electro. After all, it did seem like he was always a third wheel in this relationship, since so much of your best work is without him.

But I just can’t shake the feeling that something magical and profound has been lost between us, the sense that you’ve lost your hold on the listener, the notion that you’ve become bored and as a result so have we have. I’ll admit that Alice Glass has been catching my eye. Her brazen delivery and crazed antics sometimes seem like an exaggeration of your own younger days. And I get the feeling that you’ve been watching her too, since the best moment on Two is the blatant Crystal Castles rip-off “Indulgence.” But Glass is just a passing fancy; she’s too fickle and too much of a brat for anyone to take seriously.

Someone like that shouldn’t even be a blip on your radar let alone competition and she wouldn’t be if you’d put your all into your work again. What does it say about things when you pad your comeback with an uninspired Elvis Presley cover like “Suspicious Minds?” Or when you come across like an old Ladytron demo on “Ray Ban?” Where’s the danger? Where’s the sex? No one’s asking for the aural equivalent of some BDSM experimentation here, but it’d be nice if every now and again you’d at least try to raise some pulses amongst other things.

I hate to say it, but I think we’re done and sadly it’s not me, it’s you. It was nice while it lasted, sure, but there’s no sense in the both of us continuing to waste our time. Maybe a change in scenery is in order; there are some people in Portland in particular who I’m sure could teach you a thing or two. And maybe, just maybe, if things improve we can give it another try some time.

by Morgan Davis