Roots and Beginnings: The Pointer Sisters - “Automatic”

Achieving sentience in the early ‘80s: Has anything come as close to a guarantee of interest in science fiction since dawn of the Atomic Age? The post-Star Wars saturation of genre entertainment with robots and lasers and aliens, plus the democratization of the synthesizer as the weapon of choice for forward-thinking makers of pop, R&B, funk, industrial, and new wave/alternative music meant The Future lay thick on the ground. All I knew as a five year old was that I loved songs that sounded like they were sung by droids.

Hence my lingering love of “Automatic,” a razor-tight yet ecstatic song about how desire can make you short-circuit. There’s some vocal manipulation going on here, sure, of the same sort that would also make me fall in love with “Funky Town” and “Jam On It.” But in the main, you’re just hearing the remarkably low voice of Ruth Pointer; sounding neither male or female, it scans as “artificial” in a deeply engrossing and mysterious way. Throw in the motorik beat, the laser-bright synths, and that computer-processor tinkling sound that pops up every now and then, and this song sounds like you’re listening to some android’s internal monologue. The climactic harmonies of all three sisters in the chorus and hook are some real robot-comes-alive shit, the kind of thing Daft Punk’s built a whole career out of. They make it sound like a total, transcendent delight to be utterly at someone’s whim. If science fiction is the literature of ideas, well, there’s an idea for you.