White introduces the new album Blunderbuss with a conspicuously quiet acoustic number, squeezing all his customary dirt in to the lyrics. Take the opening lines, for example: “I want love to roll me over slowly / Stick a knife inside me and twist it all around / I want love to grab my fingers gently / Slam them in a doorway / Rub my face in the ground.” Vocal duties are shared with Nashville singer Ruby Amanfu, whose trembling stripper sound gives this grimy love ballad an extra salacious bite, even as the chorus reveals that White’s point – that love should interrupt and affect you – is actually kind of poignant. Another – jesus, yet another – brilliant, distinctive and memorable tune from the goth boy genius. Who, by the way, was hilarious on the Colbert Report last year.
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