Imagine you're an ailing octogenarian in intensive care and Autre Ne Veut and Mykki Blanco are the internists on call at your death bed. Depending on your mental state, their scrubbed-up soul-rap would either be a comfort or a reminder that you are old and dying, and probably don't get it. No matter, youth is wasted on the young, anyway. As an onlooker, though, this video for "Counting" has such extreme moments of earnestness, that it's almost embarrassing. Which makes me, a not-so-old but semi-crotchety person, wonder if I am afraid of getting old and dying (yes), and overly cynical (probably). But whatever criticisms I could conjure from the recesses of my brain, I also recognize that there is something inherently catchy and pleasing about the hip-hop/R&B/new age bouillabaisse that is "Counting," and that it might be a melody worth carrying along into that good—or any good—night. Autre Ne Veut's LP Anxiety will be out February 26th on Software.
