The Milk Diaries: Leftover Love

“I succeed very well, by not looking at the world around
By not looking at myself
Going on, moving, constantly.”

Dyva - Leftover Love

I felt a desperate need to listen to this song, lying across some seats on a local bus to Cirencester. It was some years ago and I was with my family. We were all stuck in traffic and I felt lousy. I knew only emotional early Italo Disco would assist with whatever ailed me. I sought out the bouncy bass and cloudy vocals and I wailed along under my breath:

“People can’t invent,
Their lovers and friends,
It’s life which gives these
And also takes them away sometimes.”

It’s not the most articulate of lyrics, but it reminded me of a friend who once described the appeal of Italo Disco. He said it was the language barrier which makes for more pure, expressive lyricism. It was an insight that, for me, added so much to a genre that is so commonly dismissed as disposable. Leftover Love is lyrically clunky, but it captures a desperate level of sincerity:

“I want to say yes,
Want to say yes to life!”

It's been a long time since that bus ride in Cirencester, but I occasionally think of Leftover Love and how meaningful lyrics needn't be particularly poetic or articulate. There can be something in the simplicity of expression which can make a song quite profound, even though it is hard to believe such meaning was ever really intended..