Who knew this song is about mice? Even seeing the cover art it would take a stretch of the imagination (also, that looks like a rabbit).

Living in London and recently graduated from art school, Alison Goldfrapp spent the mid to late 1990s as a guest vocalist for, among others, Orbital and Tricky, while writing her own songs on her own time. Composer William Gregory heard an early version of one of these songs and the two began collaborating under the name Goldfrapp.

Their atmospheric, electronic debut was released to general acclaim in the fall of 2000, but for their second album, Black Cherry, the duo decided to glam things up. Adding some stomping beats and techno-disco synths, the album was a dark groove designed to get you to move.

Released in the summer of 2003, the second single, “Strict Machine,” sounds like an ode to robot romance, but actually took inspiration from an experiment on mice. Scientists, as they are wont to do, plugged electrodes into the joy centers of mouse brains and stimulated that area upon the successful completion of rodent-centric tasks. Normally, songs about experiments are dark and troubled, but Alison envisioned herself as the mouse. You’d pretty much love those wires, right? Give me more tasks! Who needs chemistry when you’ve got electricity?

The duo would subsequently score bigger hits, but “Strict Machine” put them on the map, especially outside of their home territory, and the song remains an electronic classic.

So get a rush when you’re plugged in … with Goldfrapp.