Despite appearances to the contrary, and the gently explicit lyricism, Breathe is a gospel song. While the angelic choir or low moaning blues vocals might not give it to you immediately, the celebration – the inter mingling of body, spirituality and the elevation of sex to celebratory ritual – might.
For me it combines ways to talk about sex – tight and funky Prince guitars and cheeky irreverence; the dark magic, pulsing low end, off kilter looping of D’Angelo’s Voodoo. But I’m never going to manage the offhanded sexiness of either of those two masters, and I know it. I guess the lyrical drive comes in part from Bruce Springsteen’s Cover me – itself perhaps a reference to the Biblical story of Ruth – arguably one of the few times we see specific references to premarital sex and romantic coupling in the Old Testament. Yep. Desire, old school.
Which brings us to entanglement / disentanglement.
We make our way along the beach
to the headland past the people
I feel like you could open me up
Here’s the church,
here’s the steeple