Music Monday: Todeloo by Aérea Negrot

Music Monday is a meme that was created by Drew from The Tattooed Book Geek. Bjørn and I will pick a song alternatively on each Monday and share our thoughts about them. Bjørn’s pick this week is Todeloo by Aérea Negrot.

My actual original choice was ‘Listen to the People,’ but 1) there are many, many f-bombs and, worse, 2) there are many, many lyrics in German, and apparently at some low-IQ point in my life I decided to sell the CD, which means I can neither transcribe them, nor copy from the booklet.

‘Todeloo’ is, as the lyrics (transcribed by me) might suggest, an extremely personal song. Born in Venezuela, Negrot moved to Berlin, collaborated with Hercules & Love Affair on their best records, and released her debut and only album, Arabxilla, in 2011. I might have been a bit high when I first heard Arabxilla. I immediately biked to my favourite bar, declared it my record of the year, and demanded it to be played in a loop for the rest of the night. I had, ah, good relationships with bartenders in Amsterdam, and so I got my wish. In the morning I worried my sober brain would discover I tortured people with dreadful tosh. It’s still one of my favourite records and I play it regularly.

I had the pleasure of remixing her collaboration with Billie Ray Martin, ‘Off The Rails’ – if there was anything Negrot couldn’t do with her voice, going from Michael Jackson-style staccatos to operatic solos, we will never know, since she passed away in October 2023. Which I found out when I was trying to find the lyrics for ‘Listen to the People’. Fuck this decade with a chainsaw.

This is a love song
This is a love song
The time of your absence
Has open wounds left unhealed
All this time
Has been the lesson
You are not the reason
Of my existence

Mother, you avoid me every time on the phone
Father, twenty nine years don’t seem to be enough
If my life is your shadow, wash it off with rain
I have my own brain
(Learn to deal with the pain)
I am not sixteen
I am not your dream
I am not your boy
Todeloo, todeloo, todeloo!

I said I’m not thirteen
I am not your dream
Better smell my coffee
Todeloo, todeloo!

Mother, you avoid me every time on the phone
Father, twenty nine years don’t seem to be enough
If my life is your shadow, wash that off with rain
I have my own brain
Left to deal with the pain
Todeloo, todeloo!
Todeloo, todeloo, todeloo!

I am not sixteen
I am not your dream
I am not your boy
Todeloo, todeloo, todeloo!

Mother, you ignore me every time on the phone
Father, twenty nine years don’t seem to be enough
If my life is your shadow, wash that off with rain
I have my own brain
Learn to deal with it

I am not sixteen
I am not your dream
I am not your boy
Todeloo, todeloo!