Sci-Pop: Latest Singles

By Neal Anthwal

If there's one thing we love (I say "we love", but I mean "I love") it's science cropping up in "the arts" and "popular culture", whatever those words actually mean. So we're (I say "we're"...) compiling a list of any sciencey things, no matter how tenuous, in any newly released UK singles.

Yep, it's back, your favourite music reviews, taking in the sounds and the science. This week its:

Love's Not a Competition (But I'm Winning) by Kaiser Chiefs

Science: If you take the rather unromantic and reductionist view that the concept of romantic love is nothing but the complex manifestation of basic mating urges combined with a strong pair bonding instinct, then love is indeed a competition.

Many animals compete to win a mate, or to win valuable access to favourable mating grounds. From stag beetles to elephant seals, they're all at it.

Zoologists consider the successful males those that have their share of successful copulations with fecund females, resulting in the birth of progeny.

So, is Ricky 'Kaiser Chiefs' Wilson winning? Wikipedia makes no mention of him having successfully copulated with a fecund female resulting in the birth of progeny. Therefore, this hard boiled Darwinian reviewer considers him not a winner, but a loser.

What's it like? When I first heard this I was convinced it was a cover of an 80s tune by Duran Duran or some such (apparently it's not). That should act as all the review you need.

Granite by Pendulum

Science: Pendulums are part of a bit of science known as "Physics". This type of science, considered by many to be a dark art practised by black-hearted necromancers, is so obtuse and arcane that no mortal can understand its ways without first going mad.

The diagram below shows the key components of a pendulum clearly demonstrates this, as each element sounds as if it belongs in a piece of gritty social realism theatre about life in a 1960s prison, rather than a weight swinging about on a piece of string.

What's it like? Granite is a common type of igneous rock, and this tune most certainly does. (Rock, that is, not igneous. This tune igneouses would make no sense at all). It manages to sound great, whilst simultaneously reminding the listener of a late 1990s dance remix of a slightly gothic metal song. Quite how this is done without sounding shite is a mystery only bettered by that of physics. Also there are X-Files-esque aliens in the video, which earns it extra geek points and makes me slightly scared. Well done.

Get more music reviews or more from Neal or more from the Null, the choices just keep on coming and coming:

Do stuff - Add to our Sci-Pop Hall of Fame
Fear stuff - Making music with fire
Make stuff - Composing with proteins
Learn stuff - Revise to Ravel and Study with Schubert

Talk Sci-Pop with our Facebook group.

Image: Pendulum

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