Song Essays

Teenager by Steve Kidder, Song #2: "I Want X"

When I first heard the final master of the song “I Want X”, I was riding on a train from Gloucester into Boston. As I watched the sun set over the sea, the grinding noise of the train tracks below me gave way to the initial clicks and clanks of the drum machine on the track. Pulsing, solemn vocals (much darker in tone and lyrical content than the previous song, “Fabulous Things”) begin to punch their way in, and then a classic New-York-house arpeggiated synth-alarm begins to send the song into its main territory: the club.

I was overwhelmed in want and desire. I was awash in color and breath. I was no longer on the train.

“I Want X” is ultimately a musical expression of an honest exploration of will.  It is a song about sugar, salt and spice. It is a song about smoking a cigarette at 2:37am with your ex-lover. It is a song about true want. Steven Kidder is asking us to define what we want in an almost confessional plea of instant gratification.

My mind began to race: “What do I want, and what do I want right now? Do I want to call the woman I just saw in Gloucester and tell her how much I love her? Do I want to get off the train before my stop? Do I want a bottle of water?” I was being sonically pushed towards all I desire and absolutely loving it.

With this concept of strength of will in mind, it is not surprising that “I Want X”s influences seem to include New York techno pioneers like DJ Frankie Bones, classic Chicago house, Radiohead, Right Said Fred, and an almost Hyperpop sensibility (those delicious bursts of bubbles from 1:08-1:37) that recalls the best work of SOPHIE. The best electronic music has at times always pushed our senses towards the hedonistic and impulsive. This moment comes early on “Teenager”, and I am extremely grateful for it.

In the end, I simply finished the song and got off on my stop, but that moment of fantasy, will and impulse was only made possible through this music. This is the highest energy moment of “Teenager” in my opinion, and a track that I have often had on repeat since.

Listen to “I Want X” and ask yourself:

What do you want?

-C