Fluxblog 386: let's get back to autumn 1991
Plus new songs from Fanclubwallet and Carlos Truly
This is a fairly light edition of the newsletter as I will be away for three days in Los Angeles to see Pavement and I’m traveling very light. Regular posting will resume next week.
This week’s playlist is THIS WAS AUTUMN 1991, a flashback to the Q4 that changed everything. This is a pivotal moment in music history, particularly for rock music as several game-changing blockbusters all hit around the same time. This isn’t a full picture of the musical revolution of the early ‘90s – Garth Brooks hit a little earlier and I can’t feature him because he’s not on streaming, Mariah Carey broke a year prior and was hitting her stride in ‘91, and a sea change for rap would happen around Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and the Wu-Tang Clan’s debut in 1993. But still, this is a clear pivot point and in this playlist you can hear the aesthetics of the 90s really click in.
FYI this is one of the few playlists where I’d say the YouTube version is definitive, not just because it’s all music videos and this is prime MTV era, but because it features the real version of PM Dawn’s “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” and the re-recorded version on streaming platforms is… not very good. [Spotify | Apple | YouTube]
Here’s a little preview of the first half…
This newsletter is free, but the work that goes into making Fluxblog and the playlists and the podcast etc takes up a lot of my time. I don’t like pestering people into signing up for the Patreon or doing one-time donations on Ko-Fi, but I will say that right now would be an excellent time to do this as I’m entering a very precarious economic situation. Your donations are always appreciated, but I can say for sure that right now they’re more appreciated than ever.
Drown You In Love
Fanclubwallet “National TV”
“National TV” is written from the perspective of someone who is somewhat recently out of a relationship that clearly got very codependent and they’re adjusting to the other person’s life moving on while they just…haven’t quite done that yet. Plenty of songs are about this, but the things that really intrigue me about this one is how Hannah Judge’s lyrics deal with resentment about having an influence on a partner’s life and art – “can you believe this guy? He’s starting to sound like he’s just like me” – and approaching their own music with dread because they’re worried the songs are about them. And he’s got a new girlfriend – and she looks just like her? This is all pretty normal stuff but rendered with exactly the right level of low-key irritation and simmering anxiety around wondering whether you were just a type, or if you’re being actively replaced because you got annoying. This is a song that benefits from the implied distance and shy affect of classic indie rock because if you came in too hot on any of this it would just feel like too much for the topic, but at this temperature it’s underplaying the anger in a compelling way.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
That Same Story Over And Over
Carlos Truly “Why Suffer??”
“Why Suffer??” is an odd mutant R&B song that nevertheless moves with a lot of grace, slinking and gliding and floating around and giving Carlos Truly a lot of space to exude sensativity and sensuality. The music is cozy and sexy, but…what the hell is this guy singing about? As far as I can parse this it sounds like he’s encountered some woman he’s attracted to after a minor car accident, learns she has a husband, and then he’s just like “this guy seems gross, why suffer the indignity of being with him when you could be with me?” The song positions it all like maybe there’s some abuse going on but all you really get in the lyrics about the husband is that he’s naked and sweaty at some point. Songs don’t really need to tell complete stories to work and this one certainly gets by just fine on purely musical charms, but there’s so many missing or vague details in this one that it’s hard to even tell where this song is coming from. Is this a song about a guy with a crush who develops an unreasonable grudge on this lady’s husband, and he’s meant to be an unreliable narrator? Or is this more like a song about a guy we’re meant to understand as a hero and his judgment of this husband is meant to carry more weight? I like it better if it’s the former.
Buy it from Bandcamp.
