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Every once in a while there comes along a track that so brilliantly and subtly captures what you might call the 'spirit of the times' that it passes over the heads of most and drifts quietly by unappreciated, perhaps to be rediscovered in some distant future and celebrated as it deserves.
Painted by Numbers, second single off album Dying to Say This to You, is a perfectly executed satire of mass produced consumption culture. Drawing inspiration from an almost nihilistic, Foucauldian conception of humanity trapped in a constructed reality, they rail against the impossibility of breaking out of our manufactured selves. Everyone is comparing The Sounds to Blondie - but this is Blondie getting drunk and shagging Nietzsche, and then slipping off to deck Jean Paul Sartre and steal his wallet.
"We'll be the same tomorrow, because we've all been painted by numbers" wails lead singer Maja Ivarsson. "We're dancing as we borrow, you said it was love, I said I'd like you to be mine" - how can love flourish in such an overdetermined environment, what does it even mean any more? With a perfect sense of irony, Painted by Numbers comes from an album almost identical in conception and execution to The Sounds' original - what else can we do but endlessly repeat our programming? I am, of course, still trying to wrap my head around the hidden meaning of the interlude "Na na na nana nana na na / Na na na nana na na" (but I think we'll be pondering that part for decades).
A cunning veneer of cheerful superficiality disguises The Sounds' razor sharp social commentary, and their enjoyably dancey, synth heavy pop serves as the perfect counterpoint to the bleakness of Ivarsson's lyrics. Is there a hint of acceptance there? A suggestion that our constructed selves relieve us of the crushing burden of existentialist responsibility? If our choices have already been made, there's little else to do but sit back and enjoy the ride - and who better to enjoy it with than The Sounds themselves.
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