WHEN I FIRST HEARD One Star's "E.U.R.O.P.A." (track two on Triangulum), I totally fell in love. Or rather, the Andrew McCarthy and the starlet version of me inside my head fell in love. It was the Pretty in Pink Andrew McCarthy--only updated slightly for the 21st century. See, in my dream he's wearing Ducky/Jon Cryer's clothes instead of grody prepster threads, and his hair leans more towards Morrissey's mussed '89 hairdo as opposed to full-on pompadour--uhanyway. As Andrew McCarthy moves in, there's sort of a Tim Burton backdrop of electric blue night and stars, with a sweeping light aura surrounding us, as the camera pans up towards the sky and the credits roll. It's like the moment in Some Kind of Wonderful when Watts and Keith are about to "practice kissing" and "She Loves Me" by Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy comes on and the colors are crystalline and you just get this delicate rush. At that moment, everything's so ****ed, but you know this great love will triumph.
Initially, I was going to review this whole CD, but honestly, I haven't listened to anything but "E.U.R.O.P.A." I don't know what the lyrics are, because the vocals are almost unnaturally high (a little bit like One Star's fellow Japanese popster, Takako Minekawa) and they're swathed in this very light echo. I'm not even sure if they're singing in English. But that's partially why this song is so amazing. It's complete atmosphere. Their synths sound like iridescent bubbles rising up from a sea of blue gelatin, sort of like the water levels on Super Mario 3, and the vocals are the swimming jellyfish. The lead guitar, consisting of no more than five repeated notes, is the actual kissing part. And the bass is that "wow, I'm falling hard" feeling in your stomach.
"E.U.R.O.P.A." is the most successful pop song I've heard in a very long time. If there were fewer corporations in the world, it'd be on the radio every five minutes. In any case, it's definitely playing on the radio in my head, dreamily repeating as the young, shy Andrew McCarthy leans in toward my lips.
