100 Greatest Songs of the 00’s #94 Death From Above 1979 – Romantic Rights

Released: 2004

In the words of the late, great Bill Hicks, to which many are still prone to quoting so many years after his death “So, I’m thinking Canada, cold..huskies..during the wintertime pretty girls are wearing parkas, you lucked out!”

Except Death from Above 1979 – drummer/vocalist Sebastien Grainger and bassist/keyboardist Jesse F. Keeler – were from Toronto, which last time anybody checked was above the 43rd parrallel, and their 2004 debut album You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine was the sound of the libido doing the wild thing with musical instruments, whether there were three foot snow drifts on the back porch or not.

The pair distilled all of this not-right-just-right-now attitude into Romantic Rights, a song that was a raucous fusion of punk, industrial crank and throbbing electroclash which left half of it’s listeners arguing about how just two people could make so much noise and the other half undoing their buttons. Other tracks on the album boasted titles like Pull Out and Sexy Results, the duo apparently intent on engulfing Canada in a blizzard of sin. But then again who cared how cold it was – after all, as Bill Hicks also said, “It’s just a ride.”