The title, of course, is a pun of sorts. Mary Confurius, the Dutch artist behind the brooding, bracing “Cock Tale”, is singing about an actual cocktail when she sings the title phrase in the song’s coda. “Let’s have that cocktail/It’s on me,” she sings, the friendly sentiment turned into a veiled threat thanks to her clenched-jaw delivery. But the spelling of the title suggests the song’s subtext; it’s a song about sex, a song that grapples with and subverts typically male acts of aggression.
Mary Confurius describes herself as taking inspiration from trip hop acts like Massive Attack and Portishead, and you can definitely hear their influence. The mood is nocturnal, like all good trip hop, and the song boasts a brawny, nasty groove that recalls some of the gnarlier moments from Mezzanine or Third. The bass buzzes and snarls like a pissed-off vacuum cleaner, and the drum loop that forms the song’s backbone has a bruising physicality to it while staying loose and fluid. Trip hop is a genre that’s bound to a certain place and time, but “Cock Tale” doesn’t sound dated at all; it’s influenced by the genre, but it’s not a simple pastiche.
Confurius also cites PJ Harvey as an influence, and you can hear that in “Cock Tale”, as well. PJ Harvey is a tricky comparison, because she’s changed her sound and approach so many times throughout her career. When an artist is compared to Harvey, as with David Bowie, it’s more helpful to say which album of hers they sound like.
In Confurius’ case, she sounds like To Bring You My Love, Harvey’s 1995 goth-blues melodrama. Like To Bring You My Love, “Cock Tale” has shades of trip hop while still retaining its rock identity, and its title would fit right in on an album with songs like “Meet Ze Monsta” and “Long Snake Moan”. But most importantly, there’s Confurius’ voice; like Harvey’s, it’s bold and commanding, with a sexuality that demands you meet it on its own terms.
The chorus is a come-on, but there’s nothing coy or flirtatious about Confurius’ tone. “Take meeeee,” she groans, a demand rather than a request. “I don’t know how long I’ll last, but I’ll fight.” Those are some loaded lyrics, but I think that it’s intentional on the part of the songwriter. The shadow of sexual violence may loom over the song, as it does with even the most innocuous hook-up, but that doesn’t mean our narrator can’t get what she wants.
The narrator of “Cock Tale” is a woman who relishes in carnal pleasures; not only in the figurative, sexual sense, but in the literal sense of having a body. “Veins! I love my veins!” she exclaims during a verse. “Blood’s no good if it’s standing still.” She wants to feel the blood pump through her veins, she wants to feel the pain and pleasure of rough sex, and she wants to exhibit total control of herself. She sees no need to apologize, and with a song like this behind her, why should she?
