Pitchfork is spending the week counting down their top 500 tracks of the mp3 decade, but I’m going to skip the list-making foreplay: “Heartbeats” is the song of the decade (for me). Originally released in late 2002 to little fanfare, the song might have remained a lost gem of Swedish synthpop, but the single was re-released two years later and embraced by the burgeoning world of music blogs. José González’s acoustic cover—which still pops up on primetime televison soundtracks—was inevitable and insipid, but really put the song on the map.
All these years later, the song remains sublime. Karin is inimitable as she struggles to reconcile the morning after and the previous night’s “magic rush”. Olof’s synths saw back and forth throughout, but the song’s 80s touchstones are positively celebratory. The combination is improbably brilliant, and I’m thankful for it. This is, of course, the missing link between Björk and ABBA.
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