“Lebanese Blonde” | Thievery Corporation | Phelt Phinds 30

As a loosely (or arrogantly) classified child of the 90s (born in 1996), I feel a borrowed nostalgia for the music, film and velour from the decades bookending the new millennium. I was too young to genuinely be engaging in The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill or synchronised head-to-toe denim but these cultural moments populated the background of my childhood. Sentimentalism by proxy. So when Thievery Corporation’s “Lebanese Blonde” played via one of those Spotify shuffle kismets, I was catapulted into a low-rise gossamer net.

The 1999 single features alluring vocals from Pam Bricker and has an acutely cinematic consistency. I.e. a fitting soundtrack to an elegant bank heist montage; iconic of a turn-of-the-century film. Or the diegetic music spilling out of our protagonist’s radio, as they drive at a mysterious hour; slightly tinted sunglasses, sardonic silk shirt & cigarette smoke plumes a gogo.