What can I say: I’m a sucker for tracks titled “ecstasy” on albums sporting blood-spattered pot leaves for cover art, made by elusive Swedish boy-girl duos that go by two lower-case letters for a name and title their releases nothing more elaborate than No. 1 and No. 2.
You’re minimalist and mysterious, jj; you were always in a position to steal my heart. When this track took an o.k. melody from Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” and introduced it to fragile female harmonies and swaying, swimming, tripped-out production, the deed was done.
Yes, this is a drug song. “When I’m in the club, I’m always on a drug, if you get a hug, guess what drug. I’m on ecstasy.” Hints, hints …. Hearing echoes of Lil Wayne bubble up between blissed out sensory messiness conveys the experience of being in a club on that drug quite well, I would imagine.
However, this is much more than a “re-create the feeling of being on drugs” song. There’s something melancholy here, and definitely a feeling of being lost. “Ecstasy” is haunting, and, make no mistake, haunting is the slow-release version of a very, very potent “catchy.”
Listen to “Ecstasy” on Pitchfork!
