Each Tuesday, FADER editor Matthew Schnipper highlights an underappreciated recent release he thinks we need to know about. This week it’s Cassius' "Feeling For You" 12-inch. Listen to the song and read Schnipper’s thoughts after the jump.
For two years, there was a television show called Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. It was about two guys in Boston and their neighbor. One of the guys worked at a pizza place or they lived above a pizza place, something like that. The jokes were clichés and easy, the people were like toothpaste commercial models. Everything was easily pleasant, detailed enough yet still happily bland. Then, two classic years into its genius-status sitcom run, they dropped the “Pizza Place” and it became just “Two Guys and a Girl,” an anchorless setup that I stopped watching. So did everyone else—the show got canceled.
I like simple things, appealing things. I also like details. Hence the inherent goodness in the show. It was a stupid show, but it wasn’t ashamed. A bad joke gets nullified as a bad joke if you’re not ashamed. There’s always someone who hasn’t heard a knock-knock joke. And even if you have, getting kindly nuzzled for 22 minutes a week felt nice, reassuring. Sometimes you want to be a literal baby, but that’s not possible, so lower the consciousness and wash it out. I like The New Yorker and Scrabble as much as the next guy, but feel free to try less hard as long as you don’t pretend you’re putting in deep overtime. There is something ennobling in extremely bold plainness. “A Pizza Place.” Not “Ray’s” or “Luna’s Slices” or anything worthy of its own elevation, just something to connote cheese, sauce and bread. I’ve had pizza before. I’ve had Ray’s and Luna's, but it doesn’t matter. My experience is yours if it’s just at some pizza place. I like connection and ease.
That’s why vocal house is great—audible snippet of floating familiarity with no negative consequences because of no specificity. My feelings for you have always been real are the only words in Cassius’ “Feeling For You,” swiped from a sassy Gwen McRae song. She could be saying “free” instead of "real," I don’t know. Cassius, I’m pretty sure, is related somehow to that group that did the "Brimful of Asha on the 45" song. It’s a vague detail, just enough to snag. Just like I can’t remember the guy from “Two Guys”’s name, but I do know he’s married to Scarlett Johansson. This is what I imagine the balloon boy’s dad really liked. Imagine him pumping himself up to call the media playing this, French house speaking liquid truths. There is only one lyric. My feelings for you have always been real. That doesn’t mean anything. Even if it’s “free,” that doesn’t mean anything, either. What feelings? It could be my feelings of total disgust. “I just truly think you are beyond gross.” Sing it, sister!
