Hercules and Love Affair: "My House"

Since the peak popularity of Much Music—Canada’s underfunded answer to MTV—aligned with my early teen years, I can’t help but credit many of their programming choices with naïve ideas I was developing about independence and adulthood. And I’m sure their videos of post-grunge pyrotechnics and Spring Break hijinx left an impression but it was Much Music’s after-hour program, Electric Circus, which really screwed me up. There I was, a suburban twelve-year-old, too young to go out but old enough to stay up late and watch extroverted citizens dancing amid romantic clouds of dry ice.

Never mind my youthful assumption that the club of Electric Circus was a real club, all booze-soaked and smoke-stained (in reality, it wasn’t); my big mistake was assuming that this scene was where my—hell, everyone’s—formative years were due to play out. Not necessarily in that makeshift dancehall, but between any four walls equipped with a DJ and liquor license, where everyone would rendezvous to dance and collectively share in the music.

Hercules and Love Affair’s video for “My House” plays out exactly like that, idolizing the jovial, if completely coerced, ruse of Electric Circus, right down to its overuse of camcorder zooms and canted angles. What’s more, the music itself could’ve popped out of a mid-‘90s time capsule. By letting go the uncompromising disco of their 2008 debut for a trend-ready revival of ’90s house, Hercules and Love Affair vie to take the wheel back after some quiet setbacks (goodbye Antony Hegarty; DFA recording contract) which led up to Blue Songs‘ completion.

Well, what better way to regain composure than by showcasing what the dance-troupe doesn’t need? Filling part of Hegarty’s long shadow is Shaun Wright, a fine stand-in who oozes sensual androgyny all over ‘My House’’s better-off-without-you sentiments. His refrain doesn’t get tired, exactly, but Wright’s unwillingness to explore small vocal variations over the chorus—in effect, the track’s lead hook—begs the question: what would Antony do? Bandleader Andrew Butler likely anticipated some sort of WWAD fan-dispute and, for his part, avoids trying to match the sensational diva-outlets of a track like “Blind” punch-for-punch.

In any case, the idea of ranking Hercules and Love Affair 2.0 against its former incarnation is an unnecessary step. Not only does “My House” stem from a different dance aesthetic, it’s reacting to that debut’s glamour with a sparseness that befits _Blue Songs_’ thematic plight. So, in the same way I had to accept that real clubs don’t hold the communal elation of Electric Circus’ smoke-and-mirrors, I recommend approaching “My House” without any 2008 baggage.

Beyond the Miami Beach-styled synths and weird Casio samples, “My House” actually retains Hercules and Love Affair’s core principle: that dance music is as much about sexuality and independence as it is about forgetting oneself on the dance floor. The flamboyant performers in Butler and Co.’s video don’t quite match the starry-eyed citizens I watched while growing up, but they abide the same ethos: a euphoric call-to-action that welcomes dawdling outsiders to the same inclusive beat.