Big Little Lies’ Big Song
The Man Behind the Sexy "Cold Little Heart"
There’s a reason why the term “mood music” was coined and it has everything to do with the cerebral orgasm you experience when listening to Michael Kiwanuka’s “Cold Little Heart,” featured in the opening credits of HBO’s Big Little Lies.
Only one song popularized by a television series has risen above the role of weekly mood-setter to truly resonant status – when Phil Collins made most of America feel lionesque as “In the Air Tonight” shepherded the pilot of Miami Vice onto the screen. He single-handedly dropped the panties of women and men everywhere. All it took was a drumbeat and a keyboard to stir some slickness inside each pair of high-waisted cutoffs to walk the ‘80s.
More than thirty years later, Kiwanuka’s “Cold Little Heart” picks up where Collins left off and perfects sexual alchemy by creating a craving you just can’t shake. From the first provocative measure of cooing vocals and thrumming acoustic strings, he transports us to the Bixby Bridge, with sensuous sands falling away beneath our feet into the Pacific.
In spite of its name, the song captures the heat of passion, a feeling like being supported by beach sand, tossed around with the languid rhythm of salty waves. It’s equal parts soul and sex, without making any attempts to hide its own faults.
“I’ve been playing games / We can try to hide it / It’s all the same,” he croons. He’s not trying to withhold a damn thing – certainly not the pleasure his body yearns to give.
The best music gives you goosebumps without a single touch. So the question is – in Kiwanuka’s words – Do you want it bad?
