The Stockholm synth pop pioneers Red Cell return with the usual non-stop banger that we’ve come to expect from them but this time with a disturbing message about ‘Hollywood Darkness’.
Anyone who’s ever walked Hollywood or Sunset Boulevards will know that they aren’t glitzy at all, attracting all sorts of weirdos. Within two minutes of my first visit I encountered someone shooting up down an alleyway off the Walk of Fame. Perhaps that should be shame. And that was at nine o’clock in the morning. The constant panting and moaning around you tells you how many porn films are being made behind paper thin walls.
But the song takes aim at the darker arts of Hollywood rather than the street habits, the litany of sexual abuse. While everyone talks about Harvey Wallbanger they forget allegations go back as far as the 1920s and Fatty Arbuckle.
And it’s not just the sleaze, it’s the drugs and why they won’t work. Ask Michael Jackson, if you could. Or that bloke from Friends. Or Elvis for that matter I suppose.
There’s no compromising in the lyrics:
Do you have the pills to stay awake now..?
Do you have the pills to fall asleep..?
The good the bad the ugly… the dirty and clean…
Who’s hiding in the corners..? I’ll be them all for you…
Who’s praying with their hands red..? I’ll be them all for you…
Then a crushing chorus:
“Can you avoid the claws in the Hollywood darkness..?
Can you hide the tears…”
There’s incongruity between the unstated threat in the lyrics and the joyful, catchy way the song has been composed. But then incongruity is exactly what Hollywood is all about.
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