Fluxblog 379: Lava La Rue • Julia Jacklin • Steve Lacy • PVA
Plus some music for air conditioning
This week’s playlist is AIR CONDITIONER POP, a collection of songs that fit into a personal sub-genre of music that just….feels like air conditioning to me? I’m sure you can click into this vibe, it’s pretty chill, but I will be honest with you - I’ve been a little anxious about other people not getting where I’m coming from with this at all. I hope you like it either way, this is a set of pretty incredible songs in any case. [Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
Put My Words In Motion
Lava La Rue featuring Biig Piig “Hi-Fidelity”
I’ve been meaning to write about this song for weeks and I think on a subconscious level I was just waiting for a day that was stiflingly humid to do so since the atmosphere of this song is very much “getting a fresh blast of air conditioning on a day when the air feels like soup.” The sound is warm and sensual but a little aloof – even with lyrics that are pretty open and direct about attraction it feels like both singers are avoiding eye contact by wearing extremely nice sunglasses. Lava La Rue’s vocals have a bit more depth and soul, but I appreciate how incredibly casual Biig Piig sounds here even when singing something as wonderfully hyperbolic as “I’d steal the moon for you.”
Buy it from Bandcamp.
The Echo Of My Hometown
Julia Jacklin “Love, Try Not To Let Go”
It took me a few listens to notice that a lot of “Love, Try Not to Let Go” is essentially the melody of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” merged with the sound of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.” It could be entirely unintentional but I appreciate the way Julia Jacklin seems to place herself between these two beloved classics that both contrast grand romanticism and bone-deep cynicism and still come out declaring “love is all that I want now.” She knows the risks, and has decided the potential reward is worth the likelihood of eventually wondering why the bedroom has become so cold and listening carefully to the sound of your loneliness.
Jacklin gives us some glimpses into a life – a long abandoned home town, a memory of a party, a lingering fear of losing a sense of self – and it all points in the general direction of why she’s so ready to open her heart. In this song love isn’t a cure all, but it’s something that grounds you in the support you get and the support you give. But it’s so slippery, so elusive. When the song hits a louder staccato section – TRY NOT TO LET GO! TRY NOT TO LET GO! – it’s less like a catharsis and more like the song is flying through some severe turbulence.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
To Move A Little Closer To You
Steve Lacy “Give You the World”
There’s a time jump in the lyrics of “Give You the World,” with the first verse coming from the perspective of trying to get closer to someone and start a relationship, and the second verse zooming ahead to the point where the relationship has run its course. The music stays placid and lovey dovey throughout, you have to listen closely to even pick up on the shift of perspective. There’s certainly another way of doing this song in which Steve Lacy pushes the second half towards a darker, more depressive tone but that would defeat the purpose and the beauty of a song in which the desire for intimacy and overwhelming generosity is the entire point. I don’t think Lacy wants us to focus on the end of things so much as a pure feeling that carries beyond conclusions and disappointments. This is a song where love, however fleeting, is never a failure.
Buy it from Amazon.
A Moment I Won’t Forget Even Though I Forget Everything
PVA “Hero Man”
The answer to your question is NO, I will NEVER be sick of cold synth pop stuff with vocals by cool European women who sound kinda mean and extremely bored. Ella Harris speak-sings “Hero Man” with a tone that suggests a contempt that was once scalding has been chilled over time into something closer to frustrated cynicism. She sounds hardened, but also trapped and powerless, and full of resentment for the men who can move more freely through the world. The music plays up a sense of claustrophobic tension but the constant movement in the percussion makes the song feel agitated and wily, as though Harris is not far off from busting her way out of confinement.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS LINKS
• Jamieson Cox’s One Good Song newsletter has returned with a terrific post about Donald Fagen’s “I.G.Y.”
• Jessica Crets wrote a nice piece for Polygon about trans writer Rachel Pollack’s mid-90s run on Doom Patrol, in which she introduced the trans hero Coagula. I loved this run when I read it as it was originally published when I was a teen and I’m excited that it’s finally going to be collected as an omnibus later this year.
• Here’s a nice long feature in the British indie music magazine Loud & Quiet about Pavement getting ready for their reunion tour.
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