Shock Collar

"Shock Collar" was released by Humanist, a solo project by British musician Rob Marshall, as a single on January 13, 2020 and also on his self-titled debut album on February 21, 2020. It features Dave Gahan on vocals. The lyrics are written by Mark Lanegan.

"[Rob Marshall] got the idea for the project from watching The Living Room, a documentary about singer Gavin Clark...The day after he watched the film, he learned that Clark had died, making him want to write an album of songs about mortality. He then reached out to a dream list of singers and asked them to write their own melody and lyrics with just a track title and the music."¹

Lyrics

Dave's Take

"It was a pleasure to be asked to be a part of Rob's Humanist project. Mark Lanegan asked me, and I liked the idea immediately. It's a beast! I went for the vocal, with the visual of driving fast on an empty highway. We shot the video over a couple of days in New York, and it all came together."¹

"...when I initially heard the backing track of what Rob had done first, my initial thought was that it felt like Echo & The Bunnymen. I liked a lot of that stuff in the '80s, and I think Rob is influenced by a lot of that full-on, wall-of-sound stuff. I think it's pretty fresh because it came together pretty quickly. It wasn't messed around with too much and we just got on with it. It just is what it is, and is certainly a good way to start the new year."²

My Take

The music and especially the guitar work sounds very post-punk, reminding me of bands like Modern English or Joy Division. Dave's vocals sound very bright and melodic overall- not at all gloomy like in the dark pop numbers he is famous for. The verses have him singing slowly and in a droning-like manner, almost in total contradiction to the faster-moving beat and guitars, but it culminates into a somewhat celebratory-sounding chorus with the defensive, "I never lied / Never, never lied." And what is this argument that seems to take place in the chorus? The statement, "I never lied" is immediately followed by the repetitive shouts, "Liar," which are delivered so well by a mocking and disgusted-sounding Dave. The lyrics are very poetic but also so cryptic that I admit, I have no idea what they are about. But I do get somewhat of a political oppression feel out of this, almost as if it is written from the perspective of an innocent civilian whose life is rocked by the whims of a powerful politician or government; maybe they are caught in the middle of a war which they did not start or have anything to do with ("The soldiers wave / Parade of flags")? I could even see this being applicable in a corporate environment as an employee who gets caught in the middle of messy office politics and loses. In either environment, whether in a big, corrupt government or a similar microcosm like the workplace, the powers-that-be sure like to make promises ("I never lied") and then break them later ("Liar"). All of that rings of some strong Construction Time Again vibes! It's also very interesting that the title of the song, "Shock Collar," never appears once in the lyrics, but that phrase alone has some powerful undertones and is also highly applicable to the theme of political/corporate oppression...Think of what a shock collar is and what it's used for- namely for training dogs with the intention of stopping "bad" behavior by giving them a slight shock every time they engage in the behavior. It is a controversial method and has been shown to cause psychological damage in some cases. Anyway, that's a different subject, altogether. But wow...the message here is as punk as punk gets!

P.S. I admit, the statement in the RollingStone article about Rob Marshall asking each singer to "write their own melody and lyrics" threw me off because that seemed to imply that Dave had written the lyrics to this song. After all, he sang them! But it struck me as quite odd as these lyrics seem unlike anything Dave has ever written. Sure enough, it was actually Mark Lanegan- not Dave, who penned them, as revealed in the NME article². Also, did anyone else catch the exciting Soulsavers news within that same article? It sounds like Dave's collaboration with Humanist has inspired him to work on new Soulsavers material again! Finally, it seems like I maybe was reading too much into the lyrics with my "political oppression" theme; it seems like the actual theme may be much, much simpler than that based on the articles.

Music Video

WARNING: The video contains strobing lights throughout, so do not watch if you are sensitive to strobes! The video shows both Dave and Rob Marshall performing in a room lit up with different-colored lights. There are also scenes of giant neon lights in the shape of a circle and a square in various urban settings.

My Take

Dave just throws himself into every performance, doesn't he? Even if he doesn't have a large, screaming audience standing right before him, he still knows how to put on a good show! Anyway, he sings pretty much the whole song with that signature disgusted scowl on his face left over from the "Where's the Revolution" video, giving extra punch to the words in the chorus line. The colors and the strobing lights make it appear that he and Rob are in a vaporwave club or something, giving it that strong 1980s aesthetic. The repeated use of the square- and circle-shaped neon lights is a noteworthy touch. It seems as if they are meant to symbolize something. The circle could simply refer to the "halo" mentioned in the song, and I can make out faint perpendicular lines within the neon square, making it look like a window (though it's probably just part of its supporting structure, come to think of it). These shapes could simply be part of the overall vaporwave aesthetic, too (though then it's only missing a triangle in this case).

References

1. "Hear Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan's Moving New Collaborative Song 'Shock Collar'", RollingStone (January 13, 2020)
2. "Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan on new Humanist collaboration and his 2020 plans", NME (January 13, 2020)