She's a Lady

The swirls of keys and synths opening this song manage to sound both seductive and mechanical. In a similar way, “She’s a Lady” find Jarvis feeling both intense and flippant. The furiously dramatic disco rhythms push and pull him in all sorts of directions, thinking about all sorts of girls: the ones who left him, the ones who saved him afterwards. You get the sense he’s having as much trouble telling them apart as we listeners are. Nevertheless, his tongue remains in cheek throughout. The song title is stolen from that master of kitsch, Tom Jones. The bridge references “I Will Survive” just as cannily as “Disco 2000” will borrow from “Gloria” on the next album. There’s even a rare Jarvis rap. And, of course, my favorite moment of them all: Selling pictures of herself to German businessmen/Oh, that’s all she wants to do.

And, don’t forget, plenty of “ma ma ma ma ma”s. A live television performance of this song is here.