I've written about Toronto-based duo Prince Innocence's (Josh McIntyre and Talvi Faustmann) 'Manic' before, and the recent release of "Polished" (the first single from their upcoming EP Easy Life) indicates that the electronic duo are proving to be masters of minimalism, working wonders with slow, hazy synth beats and thoughtful, melodic lyricism. As the plastic wrapping in the single's cover image suggests, "Polished" addresses the superficiality and emptiness of an image-obsessed culture:
“Polished” is an ode to the vapidity and fantasy of modern love. A song that speaks to yearning, pleasure, pain — about that intermingling. We’ve always worked best with a minimal, stripped down structures and “Polished” is the culmination of that feeling. It’s the quintessential representation of our sound.”
Josh McIntyre, i-D
Faustmann's alternates between a first and third person perspective, establishing an emphatic identification with a trophy girlfriend/Stepford Wife/Eliza Doolittle character who struggles to establish her autonomy (You think you own her/ But really she's free) as she is 'polished' and moulded to fit her lover's (physical) ideals of femininity:
'You polished me
You made me gleam
You made me new again
Or so it seems
I'll be that girl
With cartoon eyes
The one who's beautiful and never dies
She'll be the life of the party
Pretty and empty
As the wind in the trees'
The lyrics merely describe a dynamic, and offer no resolution or conclusion to the situation. Faustmann's assured, haunting vocal delivery does, however, suggest that an internal rebellion is at hand. At one point, she uses a similar strategy to Princess Chelsea's "Too Many People" - interrupt a polite, literary register with profanity: 'If I should die/ Before I would/ Just tell that motherfucker not to wait'.
