#24. The Knife – Heartbeats
4 Dec
Artwork by Adam Sarpalius
As 2009, and the decade come to a close, PMA will be looking back at our favorite songs of the last ten years. We will update a list with 75 empty slots until we reach that song that changed everything. You can keep track of this list by keeping an eye on this page. We make these lists in hopes that you guys will chime in the comments and share your favorite musical moments of the noughties.
For many people, myself included, “Heartbeats” was the wonderful introduction to one of the most mysterious and riveting musical acts of the last ten years. With “Heartbeats”, Swedish brother and sister electronic outfit, The Knife inject a rainbow of color into an otherwise bleak lyrical canvas.
Karin Dreijer Andersson, in that Bjork-esque, shrill, deep tone of hers, painfully tells the tale of two lovers with “one night of magic rush … one night to push and scream” that led to a ten-day love-affair, only to eventually drift away, “sharing different heartbeats”.
With forward-thinking production and metronomic finesse, the Knife gave us a redemptive and remorseful love song that effortlessly packed in one of the most beautiful and tender electronic scores we’ve come across over the last ten years.
You might say this song is even better live:
#25. Lil Wayne – A Milli
#75-26: Various
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How can this been 24 when the cover by José González is sooo much better then the original?
Maybe because it was a cover.
maybe because the cover sucks
Have you heard the live version? It’s breathtaking. This is just one of those songs that you can connect with on a different level. Glooking on putting it in your Top 25.
THE LIVE VERSION!!!
So amazing.
my first song by The Knife… and I love it from the very beginning, as much as Karin’s voice. simpy amazing and far better than cover by Gonzalez!
I love “Heartbeats” and I’m not even a huge Knife or Fever Ray fan, but this song is just great. I can’t get over the beat, I always have to grab my headphones and turn it up when Shuffle gets to it on iTunes.
I like electronic music just fine, but I can honestly say “Heartbeats” is a masterpiece.
This list is shaping up to be great.
I have never heard that live version before, and I am literally in tears now.
Both the live and the original versions are absolutely amazing. And although i like the jose gonzalez version, it is nothing in comparison to the knife’s.
Ok the live version is pretty killin