Fluxblog #294: Taylor Swift | 87dance | Miley Cyrus | Warmduscher
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December 8th, 2020
Die For You In Secret
Taylor Swift “Peace” (Pond Lake Studio Version)
On one hand I really appreciate Taylor Swift shifting gears and exploring character-based songwriting, but on the other my two favorite songs on Folklore, the two that are the most resonant for me by far, are “Invisible String” and “Peace,” which are both autobiographical. I love that they both engage with mundane realities of the sort of the sort of heightened romance she wrote about for so long, and in those details you see a deeper love than those older songs ever imagined.
“Peace” is slow and gentle but not quite serene. Aaron Dessner’s arrangement is pared down to just a pensive guitar part and a looped keyboard note that’s both uneasy and lulling, like an error alert receding into background noise. The ample negative space gives Swift room to sing some of the loveliest melodies she’s ever written. (It does not surprise me at all that this is one that Paul McCartney singled out as a favorite.) Even if you knew nothing about her, it’d be easy to intuit that this was a particularly personal song – there’s a nuanced vulnerability in her vocal that feels lived-in and relaxed, and not necessarily performative.
The specifics of “Peace” are not very relatable – she’s basically singing to her partner about the guilt she carries in forcing him to live with the unintended consequences of her immense celebrity. She worries that she’s getting a better deal in the relationship than he is, she’s afraid that the deep connection they have may be spoiled for him having to deal with the burden of dealing with things like paparazzi and tabloids. They can experience intimacy, but total privacy is off the table.
And while most of us will not ever have to contend with these concerns, Swift’s combination of insecurity and genuine appreciation of what she has with her partner is something almost anyone can see themselves in. It’s very easy to sub out the celebrity thing for dealing with mental illness, or any other lingering trouble in one’s life. When it comes down to it, this isn’t really a song about being a celebrity so much as just acknowledging that when people get into relationships they’re signing up to deal with the other person’s mess, and sometime’s someone has more of a mess on their hands than the other. But the point of a good relationship is getting through it together.
Buy it from Amazon.
December 9th, 2020
Show You On My Melody
87dance 팔칠댄스 “Inkwater”
“Inkwater” is in the same aesthetic ballpark as a lot of post-Mac DeMarco drowsy boy psychedelic indie rock, but the bass groove brings the song a bit closer to R&B slow jam territory. So, in other words – they leveled up. The vocals are sung in English, but they’re mostly murmured and purred into the mic, so it almost doesn’t matter. But the lyrics that do rise to the surface are intriguing – for example, “well, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” immediately followed by “never hate on no one” is an interesting progression of thoughts. The chorus hook starts with “I can show you on my melody” and in context I like that as the singer getting a little frustrated with his words and just asking you to pay more attention to the vibe because the sound of it is so much more nuanced than anything he can sing.
Buy it from Amazon.
December 10th, 2020
The Truth Is I’m A Liar
Miley Cyrus featuring Joan Jett “Bad Karma”
Miley Cyrus always seems most comfortable singing rock songs, and this makes sense – even though she can competently emote in a more R&B mode, everything that makes her charismatic and exciting as a vocalist is in the grit and raw power of her voice. She effortlessly conveys a lot of core rock values that can be hard to come by in a lot of popular rock music from the past few decades – raw sexuality, attitude, huge untamed emotions, and a touch of camp. Up until recently her career has been a bit confusing because it’s apparent how much she’s had to move away from her strong suit to stay relevant in the market. A lot of her biggest hits have basically been rock songs, but her new album Plastic Hearts is the first to come to the audience with the wild proposition that she’s giving us a big pop record that’s also a big rock record. What a concept, right?
“Bad Karma” is a sleazy rocker with a lascivious “uh huh, uh huh” hook that has a very ‘70s feel but more of a ‘90s alt-rock sense of dynamics as the verses build up tension until Angel Olsen’s guitar part crashes in on the chorus. Cyrus sings the song as a duet with Joan Jett if just to acknowledge how much of the song is owed to her back catalog, but their voices complement each other very well – it’s almost like hearing the same person at different points in her life. They both project a convincing degree of shamelessness in their vocals and that’s really all this song about being a reckless and self-destructive flirt needs to work.
Buy it from Amazon.
December 11th, 2020
Go Out And Beat Up The Neighbors
Warmduscher “Midnight Dipper” (Soulwax Remix)
The original version of Warmduscher’s “Midnight Dipper” isn’t dramatically different from the Soulwax remix – the groove and vocal are about the same, but it’s shorter and a bit more raw. Soulwax stretch the song out and dial the disco way up, and in doing so the song becomes even more strange and silly than it was from the start. The original version was presenting its sleazy character and lewd vibe as a farce, but when the song is pushed to this extreme it just feels genuinely pervy and prurient. Listening to it feels like accidentally entering some kind of Plato’s Retreat-esque swingers club and being stuck between wanting to get out quickly or hang around to see how much weirder it’s going to get.
Buy it from Bandcamp.