The year. 1982. The Feeling? A band with hits only living in the past. Your last studio album was a commercial disappointment, and now, fearing the figurehead of the band had lost his mojo, a new album is going to drop spearheaded by the most inconspicuous member of most bands. The drummer. I’m talking about Steve Miller Band, and their 1982 song Abracadabra. Featured on their 12th studio album of the same name, and still receiving semi-regular mainstream radio rotation, the song Abracadabra is vaguely threatening with his opining regarding “I wanna reach out and grab ya”. My suspicions this song is sexist was only confirmed when i realised the song has been inserted into a song by eminent edge lord Eminem, in which he makes light of the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion by Tory Lanez. The actual song itself is dreary, a relic of the past and not the kind of relic we dig up and stare at with nostalgia. The kind of relic we look at and go – what was he thinking?
All up, the listen-and-forget-it quality of Abracadabra by Steve Miller Band is in sharp contrast to the magic invoked by the title. He feels hot, he feels cold, he is spinning around. It’s all about him and his ego, while simultaneously objectifying and eroticising a woman in his vicinity. I confirm the ick when i hear the lyric “Silk and satin, leather and lace. Black panties with an angel’s face” What even is that about. Steve, do you want to be a fashion designer? Why do these materials excite you? Why not wear some silk and satin yourself man? Also, how do you know the colour of this woman’s underwear? And why oh why, do you not only conceptualise underwear as “Panties” But lock it into the annals of music history via this lyric. ICK.
Lets jump forward in time. The year? 2025. The Feeling? An artist on the top of her game. Released to an audience absolutely freaking out that Mother Monster has made a mystical moody dance track that casts a spell upon everybody, enticing them to face their fears. Free from any creepy need to imagine another persons undergarments, this song instead allows the listener to imagine success and triumph, all set to an hypnotic dance beat. Interestingly, the figure of a woman is still invoked, this time however, she is wearing red. We don’t know the kind of material she’s wearing, but she is the personification of self doubt. I’m talking about Lady Gaga and her song Abracadabra.
Released as part of her 2025 album Mayhem, Abracadabra was released as the second single. Lyrically enchanting, this song toes the line between pop and industrial, with Lady Gaga using a melody from Spellbound by Siouxsie and the Banshees, infusing this track with a darker, gothier edge. It still manages to land firmly on the pop side however, with many fans reluctant to place such a mainstream artist into edgier subcultures. The drum beats featured in the intro, alongside the choppy vocal FX are industrial staples, however Lady Gaga’s verse does take the seemingly industrial intro into the more mainstream pop we are used to seeing from her.
Where the song shines is at the end of the chorus, where once again punchy beats punctuate a chant of Abracadabra over rising synths. These moments of the song are the most exciting, and live up to the magic of the word. The song’s overall feeling is that of triumph over adversity. It is for this reason, there is a very clear winner in the fight of Abracadabra V Abracadabra.
WINNER: Lady Gaga
PS: The Gesaffelstein remix of Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra slaps – Listen here